(Imagine if there would have been a high incidence of HIV/AIDS when Captain Cook and his sailors arrived…instead of syphillis getting spread from horny sailors to disease free islanders (and wiping out a significant portion of the healthy population i.e. sexually active and able to resist European invasion) the sailors would have returned to Europe and spread HIV/AIDS throughout their world…someone should write an alternative reality book about that…. unfortuantely that isn’t going to change the real fact that the Islands of the Pacific are in trouble….cd)
Silent epidemic in the Pacific
There is growing alarm from the World Health Organisation about a silent HIV epidemic in the Pacific.
HIV/Aids has been likened to a creeping death sentence. It is officially an epidemic in Papua New Guinea and the rising rate of the disease in the Pacific is on the WHO agenda at its world meeting in Noumea, New Caledonia.
Pacific islands like New Caledonia may appear safe and idyllic, but the WHO and others fear the silent rise of HIV/Aids. It is a problem they say is made worse by cultural taboos and sexual discrimination.
WHO Aids adviser Dr Bernard Fabre-Teste estimates there are 170,000 people in the Pacific living with Aids and needing treatment.
Silent epidemic in the Pacific LINK rest of story
