By ALISON ANIS
THE Government has taken the lead in ensuring that the enabling of legal and policy environment to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Minister for Health Sasa Zibe said the Government had addressed the deadly disease as a development issue and had prioritised it in the Medium Term Development Strategy.
“PNG has to take leadership stand also in addressing gender issue, and in particular the domestic violence and drugs, which are driving the infections among our young population.”
Mr Zibe added that women and children were more vulnerable to infections.
He said the number of people infected was increasing in the rural areas, where prevalence rate was expected to increase next year with majority of reported cases coming from young adults.
“Since there is no cure, we have to make every effort to scale up on our campaign on prevention. PNG has already in place the national strategic plan on HIV/AIDS 2006-2010.
“It is through this plan, the sectors will be responding to HIV/AIDS with their planned activities aligned to it.”
Mr Zibe said education on HIV prevention was very crucial because people simply get infected and their lives destroyed from the start due to lack of knowledge.
“We need to create more awareness in the remote areas.
He said children must know the benefits of abstinence to sex until marriage and remain faithful to one partner.
Mr Zibe also acknowledged the initiative taken by Department of Education in developing curriculum to train teachers to teach students about HIV/AIDS at all levels of learning.