PNG turns to S Africa for help with HIV crisis

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is looking to South Africa for help with its own HIV/AIDS crisis.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is looking to South Africa for help with its own HIV/AIDS crisis.The Australia-Papua New Guinea Business Forum (APNGBF) has been told five workers at the Porgera gold mine in the PNG Highlands have died of AIDS.The APNGBF heard that the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum sent a delegation to South Africa last year to learn about the strategies that the South African mining industry had adopted to handle the devastating impact AIDS was having on the mining workforces there. As a result, mining companies in PNG had launched a major AIDS awareness campaign. Dr Cathy Reto, who works at the Porgera gold mine, said five members of Porgera’s workforce had already died of AIDS, the latest victim dying last week.(Source: ABC Health News, March 2004)