AIDS taking 'destructive toll' on Papua New Guinea, aid agency says

Published: 2004-12-01

SYDNEY, Australia (CNS) -- AIDS is "taking a destructive toll on the people of Papua New Guinea," said a statement from Caritas Australia, the Catholic aid agency. "We have reached a crisis point right now. So many people are HIV-positive, so many are now suffering from AIDS-related diseases," Sister Tarcisia Hunhoff, head of the National Catholic AIDS Office of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, said in a statement released by Caritas Australia in advance of World AIDS Day Dec. 1. The number of AIDS cases in Papua New Guinea is expected to rise from 67,000 to between 1 million and 1.5 million by 2015-2020, potentially wiping out a generation and destroying the economy, reported Reuters, the British news agency. In the Caritas Australia statement, Sister Hunhoff said girls ages 14-19 were particularly vulnerable to AIDS as older men were increasingly seeking teenage girls for sex. She said her office was considering asking the school system in Port Moresby to change its lunch hour so that it does not coincide with the lunchtime of businesses.

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