The demographic impact of the HIV/AIDs epidemic in Papua New Guinea, 1990-2030

The first case of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in Papua New Guinea was detected in the capital in 1987. After a relatively short period during which the epidemic was concentrated in certain “high-risk” groups, the disease spread throughout the country and by 2005 had become a “generalized epidemic” - with a 1 per cent HIV prevalence rate among adults aged 15-49. The most recent (2007) estimates suggest that the adult prevalence rate has risen to 1.6 per cent, confirming that the epidemic is continuing to grow rapidly (NACS, 2007).