NUKU'ALOFA, Nov 20 (AFP) - Time is running short to prevent the spread of a devastating AIDS epidemic throughout the Pacific Island region, the UNAIDS ambassador for the Pacific has warned.
"We are at the point where talking about it is not enough, action must be taken," Ratu Epeli Nailatikau said at the Pacific Islands News Association conference in the Tongan capital on Saturday.
The spread of HIV/AIDS has already reached epidemic levels in Papua New Guinea, where 1.7 percent of the population -- or around 47,000 people -- are believed to be infected, he said.
The infection rate is also growing in other Pacific island countries, according to the official from UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.
One of the problems in the deeply religious Pacific islands has been reluctance on the part of conservative churches -- many of which object to the promotion of condom use -- to tackle the issue.
But church officials are starting to come around as the seriousness of the problem becomes clear, he said.
"If they don't do something about it, they will lose their flock. The moral of the story is you have to save lives before you can save souls," he said.
Those infected with HIV/AIDS are often ostracised by their families and by society at large due to the socially conservative attitudes in the islands, which discourage people from being tested and getting early treatment.
Governments are increasingly aware of the HIV/AIDS problem but in Fiji, where the number of known infections is over 190 amongst a population of about 900,000, more needs to be done to stop the spread of the disease, he said.
Transmission of HIV/AIDS in the Pacific region is primarily through sexual intercourse and from mother to unborn child, but drug use is also a factor, Nailatikau said.
"Tonga, Samoa and Fiji have a significant number of people living in developed countries where needle use is something to contend with. That is something we will have to look at in the future," he said.
Antiviral drugs taken to delay the onset of full-blown AIDS is still not widely available in the Pacific. In Fiji, only around 20 HIV-infected people living in and around the capital Suva are receiving such treatment.
"In rural areas, they don't get treatment so that is something they have to work on. The aim should be that everyone should get treatment," he said.
But the drugs are expensive and the already stretched health services of the region's poor countries cannot cope without the help of international donors.
At a Pacific AIDS conference in Auckland last month, UNICEF New Zealand executive director Dennis McKinlay said the South Pacific was one of the last places on earth where the spread of AIDS could be curtailed, but warned "that window is closing fast".
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