Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 20 June 2003
Javier Hourcade in Fiji
The figures don't seem too alarming but the Pacific is a complex region, lacking a strong health infrastructure and access to education. It is also a region experiencing socio-political crises and population displacement. All things which can help to dramatically change the HIV statistics in the Pacific and unless something is done, it will.
"For many years, the vastness of the ocean has preserved the Pacific islanders from the epidemic, but it also represents a major obstacle to linking our islands and to disseminating education and medical support. Distance will remain the main barrier if we can't manage our resources, maintain stability and ensure a peaceful environment," said Marie Bopp, a journalist and one of the first people with HIV/AIDS in the region to go public. She also founded the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation (PIAF), a non-governmental organisation based at the Cook Islands Red Cross.
How to manage limited resources effectively against HIV/AIDS in the region despite the constraints of huge distances between the island states was a key issue being addressed last week at a workshop of Pacific Red Cross societies in Fiji and organisations such as PIAF.
The gathering was part of a range of activities aimed at expanding Red Cross HIV/AIDS programmes in the Pacific and partly funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development.
The need to take seriously the threat of HIV/AIDS in the region and not assume that the Pacific's isolation from the rest of the world would somehow act as a safeguard has been smashed by the growing problem in Papua New Guinea.
By 2001, the HIV prevalence rate had grown to 7 per cent among people seeking treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases - double that of 2000. The limited use of condoms in a country with a high level of sexual networking and low awareness of HIV/AIDS has experts worried that Papua New Guinea could be facing a severe epidemic.
"We have to assume that the figures we have underestimate the reality because testing and screening in our region is low and non-existent on some islands. We've got to help slow down the further spread of the virus otherwise in 10 or 15 years, with limited prospect of treatment and our small resources, our families will be swept away, leaving behind hundreds of orphans," added Marie.
For Papua New Guinea's neighbours, there is the realisation that this is a possible scenario for them unless an effective and sustainable response to HIV/AIDS is not put into place. For the Red Cross societies in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, gathered for the workshop in Fiji, the starting point is to raise awareness of the disease.
A way of doing this was to include the involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS in any programmes and to examine the issue of stigma and discrimination relating to the disease.
Like anywhere else in the world, HIV prevention can only work if changes in sexual behaviour are made so that people become less vulnerable to the threat of the disease. But in the Pacific, where the culture is rich and traditions are strong, the exclusive promotion of abstinence by very influential churches leaves people unprepared for life in the era of AIDS.
In the past year, the Red Cross in the Pacific has built on its HIV/AIDS prevention work, promoting a broad range of life skills, including condom use, as well as addressing care and treatment issues, stigma and discrimination. The next few years will see that continue with the growing realisation that in order for HIV/AIDS not to take hold of societies as it has done elsewhere in the world, action has to be taken now.
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