AIDS in Papua New Guinea: Situation in the Pacific (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION This report on the possibility of an epidemic of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) focuses on Papua New Guinea (PNG) as seen within its Melanesian and, more broadly, Pacific Island context. PNG with 5.3 million people constitutes 80% of the population of Melanesia and 60% of that of the Pacific, i.e. Oceania without Australia and New Zealand. For almost as long as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS has been identified, it has been realized that PNG, the largest nation of Melanesia, was in danger of a serious epidemic of AIDS. One reason is that the mode of transmission of HIV is (apart from ensuing vertical transmission from mother to child) almost entirely heterosexual. Evidence for the mode of transmission is derived both from information collected from seropositive persons and from a sex ratio (male: female) of infected persons close to 1.