PNG's HIV pledge on shaky ground

PNG's pledge to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 is looking increasingly unrealistic. (AFP: Torsten Blackwood)

Papua New Guinea's government has pledged to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

But that goal is looking increasingly unattainable after the country's major source of funding for anti-retroviral drugs dried up.

Every week young women come to the Friends Foundation in Port Moresby to eat a free lunch and to collect milk formula for their children. They are all HIV-positive and so are their young ones.

But most, like a 24-year-old who wishes to remain anonymous, are yet to tell their families because of the stigma that still surrounds the disease.

She says her little boy is a miracle baby and cries while telling how he has been close to death several times in his short life.

"He couldn't eat. He went very skinny, lost a lot of weight. Bones were sticking out of him," she said.

As well as providing food, formula and counselling, the Friends Foundation cares for four HIV-positive orphans.

Its founder and director, Tessie Soi, says last year they helped 50 kids and their parents.

She says this year the demand on their services has more than tripled.

"With the numbers that I'm seeing at 150, like 11, 12 months, I'm very worried about that figure," she said.

In PNG around 10,000 people receive subsidised anti-retroviral therapy (ART) - drugs that suppress the disease and allow them to live longer.

But the major source of funding for the expensive drugs has dried up after the Global Fund rejected PNG's application for more money in its latest round of funding.

Sir Peter Barter, the Chairman of the National Aids Council, says PNG only has itself to blame for the funding knock back.

"In round four funding there was a number of... a lot of money given to Papua New Guinea and the implementation of those projects wasn't what you could describe as the best, in the interests of the people, particular those people living with HIV," he said.

"We're very slow-running, implementing seven projects. For us, it took us several years to really get people into treatment."

Sir Barter says an alternative source of funding needs to be found quickly as there is only enough ART in PNG to meet current demands until March next year.

Ms Soi says running out of ART would be disastrous.

"What will happen is we're going to get an influx of children getting positive because now the mum's not on ART, if there is not treatment," she said.

"Not only that, the mum's not going to live longer. We're going to have a lot of orphans."