Time to focus on women and girls in the Pacific HIV/AIDS battle

Girls in Papua New Guinea as young as eight are surviving through sex work as they are favoured by older men under the assumption that the girls are HIV negative virgins.
“The situation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) suggests a gender equalized epidemic fuelled by the difficult social and economic conditions”, said Bessie Maruia from the PNG National Aids Council. “Of the total number of cases reported in 2004, 46 per cent are female and 48 per cent are males – a large number of HIV positive women are aged between 15 and 29 years old and men are over 30 years old”.

Ms. Maruia was a guest speaker on the last day of the Pan Pacific HIV/AIDS Regional Conference held in Auckland, which attracted a daily crowd of over 500 delegates from all over the region between 25 and 28 October.
From Noumea, at the South Pacific Community (SPC) Headquarters, Linda Petersen, the new Head of the Pacific Women’s Bureau, praised women such as Bessie Maruia who presented on the situation of women and the epidemic in Papua New Guinea, saying it was time to focus on women and girls in the Pacific HIV/AIDS battle.
Despite considerable action being undertaken over the past few years, the Pacific still presents all the signs of high vulnerability. There is currently only limited information on the extent of the epidemic on the region.
The Conference was expected to provide a great opportunity to assess needs and review strategies to combat the pandemic. It was organized by the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation together with SPC, UNAIDS, Auckland University of Technology, Body Positive New Zealand and the National AIDS Council of Papua New Guinea.
(Sources: SPC Press releases, 25 and 28 October)