‘Causes of HIV remain’

THE factors that cause the rise in HIV transmission remain today, according to National Catholic AIDS coordinator Sister Tarcisia Hunhoff.
Hunhoff told the church leaders’ HIV summit in Port Moresby it appeared that “the same warnings that prompted concern in the past, including high level of sexually-transmitted infection and high level of sexual risks behaviour, social urban drift are evident today”.
“An added factor in recent years is the resource boom that is bringing money and mobility to many people particularly in the remote areas,” she said.
“The church is challenged by this situation in more than one way. What then is the church responses? Can we identify ourselves as bystanders, onlookers or judges or somebody who tried to understand what was happening?
“How then did you and I perceive the epidemic?”
She said the change in lifestyle and behaviour remained the main cause of gender-based violence which was a root causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS.
“I have lived 47 years in PNG and I have seen so many changes in lifestyle in behaviour. One of the contributions to the HIV epidemic in my opinion is the problem of social disintegration,” she said.
“Society has disintegrated which is a very sad story. And out of this integration, all the problems we are seeing with HIV and gender-based violence.
“Social disintegration on the global scale is a concern for many people in authority. This phenomena has spread so quickly around the world.”