5000 at risk from AIDS in PNG

AIDS may kill more than 5000 people in Papua New Guinea by the year 2000, according to a report released in Port Moresby on February 14. The report, by the United Nations Fund for Children and the PNG government, estimates that HIV infections could be as high as 26,500 by 2000.

HIV first appeared in PNG in 1987, and infections increased slowly over the next seven years, the report said. In 1994, there were 247 confirmed cases, which increased to 433 in 1996.

Experts believe that for every confirmed case, many more cases go undiagnosed. The report estimates that currently there are between 6000 and 15,000 people with AIDS in PNG.

The government has been under enormous pressure to implement a World Bank/IMF program of structural adjustment to slash expenditure.

Experience elsewhere has shown that Third World governments have been forced to cut social spending to meet the stringent guidelines laid down by the international financial institutions. The health budget in many of these countries has been slashed.

With an AIDS epidemic on the horizon such a course will be catastrophic for PNG.

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