AIDS Victims of Papua New Guinea are Buried Alive

AIDS victims are being buried alive in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), news reports from the capital Port Moresby said Monday.

An HIV-infected woman told Australia's ABC Radio that she witnessed three infected people being buried alive when relatives were unable to offer further care.

Around two percent of PNG's six million people have contracted HIV/AIDS. Rating PNG against 22 other countries in the region, charity World Vision said it had the highest proportion of its population with the virus.

Peter Piot, the head of the United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS, earlier this year warned that more than 1.5 million could be infected by AIDS by 2015.

"It's the one that I would see that could have an African-type epidemic," Piot said of PNG. "That's the one country, I would say I think is really getting out of hand."

Source-IANS
SRM/B