WHILE the United Nations Population fund UNFPA has not openly discouraged compulsory testing of populations for infection by HIV/AIDS, it has shown a definite trend towards global support for voluntary testing.
That seems both sensible and commendable to us.
People react badly to compulsion by governments and testing that will determine not only infection levels but moral behaviour trespass into exceptionally sensitive areas.
There is little reason to believe that voluntary HIV/AIDS testing in our country will fail, especially now that significant groups of non-government organisations have thrown strong support behind the concept.
One of these is BAHA – businesses against HIV and AIDS – an organisation that continues to mount a strong campaign designed to encourage voluntary testing.
A petition has been presented to the Bougainville authorities seeking compulsory testing in the autonomous region.
We believe such a move to be counter-productive to fighting the epidemic in PNG.
There are many considerations to be taken into account.
Compulsory testing has the capacity to break up families, destroy marriages both actual and potential, and wreak havoc with the offspring of a positive parent or parents.
For compulsory testing to be acceptable, the community needs to undertake a blanket education programme.
The introduction of compulsory testing now could cause mass confusion among our people; many would go to great lengths to avoid such testing.
And how would Bougainville authorities control those coming and going in the region?
If Bougainville alone conducted compulsory tests, then Bougainville authorities would have no choice but to have every person seeking to cross its borders tested.
To set up a facility capable of achieving such a result would cost a substantial sum and could not be policed along the length and breadth of Bougainville’s lengthy coastlines and scattered islands.
Compulsory testing would also have to be repeatedly carried out; it could not be a one-off process, since HIV can be acquired without the carrier’s knowledge as a result of any sexual contact. Today’s negative result can be tomorrow’s HIV-positive victim.
It seems to us that both voluntary and compulsory testing can only give a series of snapshots of the infection numbers and rate of infection – but compulsory testing would come at great social and emotional cost to a community so recently under tremendous stress.
The petition suggests a number of underlying concerns.
First, it shows an ongoing fear of the disease quite at odds with the people’s reaction to, say, malaria or tuberculosis.
Few people have any objection to finding out whether or not they have contracted either of those two diseases.
In part, of course, there is the knowledge that infection with HIV is infection with an illness for which there is no cure.
Second, and perhaps unintentionally, the petition implies that Bougainvilleans need to be compelled to determine their HIV/AIDS status. That does not seem to be the attitude in any other part of the country; why should the people of Bougainville be thus viewed?
Third, there is a level of impatience associated with all aspects of battling HIV/AIDS in PNG.
It’s natural that overseas experts who have been assisting the anti-AIDS campaign in PNG should emphasise the need for swift action. But in some cases this has run counter to the people’s normal levels of assimilation of major new information.
We are traditionally a people who consider, discuss and reach a conclusion that takes into account a wide range of factors.
Even when we should, we hesitate to rush to adopt new information or technologies.
Voluntary testing for HIV/AIDS is making increasing progress in PNG.
We also point out that such initial testing is dependent on a large supply of test kits and the rate of that supply is now steadily increasing.
We also note that as the disease progresses to its later stages, with blood monitoring even more necessary, doctors are dependent on sophisticated and often highly expensive equipment only now becoming available.
Unless convincing evidence to the contrary is presented, we believe that the voluntary testing system is the most appropriate for PNG – and we urge all our people to take advantage of its increasing availability.