Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Associated Press - Thursday, December 24, 1998
Robert Keith-Reid, Associated Press Writer
Steven Vete, the Tongan director of the Suva-based AIDS project run by the U.N. Development Program, said Wednesday that many political leaders "can't grasp or get to grips with the problem" of emerging infection in island communities.
Governments have been inactive or ineffective in following up on the creation of AIDS task forces in the region in recent years, he said.
"There is enormous complacency, there is no political will and throughout the region there is no true understanding of the nature and treatment of HIV-AIDS," said Jane Tyler, director of an Australian-funded AIDS Task Force in Fiji.
She said the small number of AIDS cases reported in the Pacific Islands compared to other nations belies the extent of the grip the disease has in the region.
According to the Pacific Community, a regional economic and social development agency, the number of reported cases among the 7 million people in 22 Pacific countries rose from 26 HIV and three AIDS cases in 1986 to 1,757 HIV and 584 AIDS cases in October 1998.
"From the time of infection to the time the disease becomes evident is about eight years, and this in a region where the level of sexual activity involving young people is very, very high," Tyler said.
Vete said governments claimed there was no money to combat AIDS, and that awareness information couldn't be printed or broadcast without violating cultural taboos against discussing sex.
But experience with anti-AIDS projects in Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Tonga showed that people there were highly receptive to explicit information, Vete said.
"For leaders to say 'It is against our tradition' is just an excuse for inaction," he said.
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