BY FRANCIS NII
WHY SHOULD PAPUA NEW GUINEA continue to push an HIV and AIDS policy that has been tested over a decade and has proven to be fruitless?
Despite millions of kina in aid money pouring into the war against the deadly HIV virus each year for more than a decade, HIV infections are still on the rise.
The official HIV prevalence rate of 1.6% reported by the National AIDS Council is based on registered cases and does not reflect the true picture of the endemic.
Experts believed that there are many healthy HIV carriers roaming around undetected. They believed that the true HIV prevalence rate should be within the range of 2-2.5%.
Papua New Guinea has a relatively small population and already a significant number of its people have succumbed to AIDS.
We cannot continue to be complacent and wishy washy in our war against HIV/AIDS and lose even more people.
Apart from the bandaid of massive public awareness and education programs on HIV/AIDS, the authorities should address the root of the problem. This is glaringly obvious and the health authorities are well aware of it.
As long as healthy HIV carriers are free to have indiscriminate sexual practises, HIV/AIDS is here to stay. And more innocent lives will be destroyed.
Drastic mechanisms like compulsory HIV screening and isolation of HIV positives in care centres and even the tattooing of carriers will eliminate HIVAIDS in Papua New Guinea.
It is murder when a healthy HIV carrier intentionally goes around unleashing the deadly venom on vulnerable and unsuspecting victims under the influence of money, entertainment and cargo.
The fear is that, as time passes, all the madness, fear and hurly-burly surrounding HIV/AIDS are bound to wane. And Papua New Guinea will soon be heading down the same road that African nations have been through; accepting HIV/AIDS and living with it just like any other common viral infection such as flu or influenza while their populations are still being decimated by the millions.
We don't have the kind of population that the African nations have to play around with. Our seven million people are nothing compared to the populations of many African nations.
No matter what Australia or the rest of the world may think, culturally we are unique. As a sovereign nation, Papua New Guinea should decide what is best for her people in the war against HIV/AIDS in the context of her own traditions, norms and social behaviour.
Australia and other international donor agencies should refrain from shoving down our throats their ideologies and policy frameworks under the might of their aid money.
These ideologies and policies are not working in PNG because they are irrelevant and not conducive to Papua New Guinean society. Why continue to spend millions of dollars pushing for a policy that has been tested over ten years and has proven to be fruitless?
Wake up PNG and get back to the drawing board. The sooner the better.
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