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Can someone please join me in horror????
12:16 PM, Thursday, 14 September, 2006
In today's Post Courier newspaper:
Tari HIV/AIDS rate cause for concern, says Sir Peter A PAPUA New Guinea town has a HIV prevalence rate of 40 per cent which is higher than the national figure of 2 per cent being circulated, says Health Minister Sir Peter Barter. Sir Peter was speaking in Port Moresby yesterday at the launch of a new umbrella organisation for civil society groups involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He said during a recent visit to a number of Highlands provinces, he had found the HIV prevalence rate among 15 - 29 year-olds in Tari in Southern Highlands Province was 40 per cent. “I had tears in my eyes when I addressed students at St Joseph’s High School,’’ he said. “I’ve realised we have lost a generation to HIV and AIDS.’’ At Paiam Porgera Health Centre, the figure of reported cases was 12.5 per cent; Laiagam Health Centre was closed; Wabag Hospital pathology section reported 12.5 per cent and Goroka Hospital had 15 per cent or 300 people. “We have been told of the one to two per cent of the national prevalence rate, but the figure I have learned in the Highlands shows the situation is far worse than I had thought,’’ he said. Statistics given by the National AIDS Council in its quarterly report do not give a true picture of the HIV situation in the country due to numerous reasons, including poor health services and non availability of testing sites in many parts of the country. Sir Peter said the Government was doing all to help combat the spread of the virus, and urged that the private sector also become active in the fight. “The reality is that until we have tested 50,000 people a year, we will not know how big the (HIV) problem is,’’ he said.
Filed under EEEEeeekk!!!, So they said...
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