Nurse: Phone dates led to HIV

By Francis Poka
THE use of mobile phones is being blamed for a growing number of new HIV/AIDS cases in the remote part of Pangia, Southern Highlands.
The sister-in-charge of the Yareporoi Catholic church-run health centre, Naomi Andrew said two pregnant women who were confirmed as being HIV positive regretted using mobile phones to make one-night stand dates that left them with the deadly virus.
She said the two innocent women were not only pregnant but had been infected with HIV after agreeing to have sex with partners they had previously only talked to via mobile phones.
She said the use of mobile phones made it easy for people to stay in touch with family and friends but it was proving dangerous for those using the devices to set up dates for sex.
Andrew said people must be mindful about so-called phone friends, saying, “You are taking a risk when you talk to a total stranger and decide to have sex with him or her”.
She said this while referring to reports she received from patients who contracted the virus after agreeing to dates via mobile phone calls.
“When I asked two patients to bring forward their partners for a HIV test, that’s when they admitted that their partners were not living with them but had been a one-night stand arranged by using their mobile phones,” she said.
She feared the use of mobile phones to set up dates with strangers or casual acquaintances may become an easy way of transmitting diseases.
She urged people to be very careful when talking to such people.
Andrew said remote areas were less at risk in HIV but alarmingly that trend was changing.
She said from the voluntarily counselling and testing she had found out that many young people between the ages of 17 to 20 years were HIV positive.
Andrew appealed to people living in Pangia who may have had sex with strangers to come forward for the voluntary test.