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| PNG tops STI cases in Asia Pacific region | |
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By LINDA SATARO PAPUA New Guinea has the highest rate of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in the Asia Pacific region, acting director of National AIDS Council Secretariat Romanus Pakure has said. He said PNG also has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific region. The country used to be the fourth in the Asia Pacific after Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar. PNG’s generalised HIV/AIDS epidemic prevalence rate is 1%. Mr Pakure said this to participants of the Pacific Countries Ports Association (PCPA), who came from different Pacific island Sates, including Australia and New Zealand to attend the PCPA annual conference held in Port Moresby. He said in the Pacific region there are 1.3 million reported cases of people infected with the HIV virus. As of last year, PNG had an estimated 46,000 people living with the virus, which is the highest number, he said. Mr Pakure said the Pacific region is vulnerable to the threat of HIV/AIDS because of a prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, low level of condom use, high level of mobility with various cultural and sexual taboos and small island nations contributing to the high risks. So far, there are more than 11,000 HIV/AIDS cases in the 10 island countries although accurate figures are likely to be considerably higher, up to 10 times because of low level of supervision, he said. Mr Pakure said the common mode of transmission includes heterosexual (unprotected sex), homosexual (unprotected sex) relations, breast-feeding and mother to child transmission. He urged all participants to take the issue seriously and look at ways to help fight the growing epidemic in their own ports and organisations. |
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