More mothers, students HIV positive in Morobe
6/5/08
More mothers and young female students were infected with HIV/AIDS compared to sex workers in the Morobe Province. The Morobe Provincial AIDS Council said yesterday records it has compiled over the last few years indicate the rate of infection among mothers in stable marriages and female students in secondary and tertiary schools was rising at a very alarming rate. “The figures we have showed that over the same period, the rate of infection among sex workers in the province has stabilised, there is no marked increase at all,” the provincial response co-ordinator Charles Pepe said. Mr Pepe said the trend of infection was brought by the rise in the cost of living in town and that married men were involved in promiscuous and unsafe sex in Morobe. “We believe that many young girls between the ages of 15 to 25 years engaged in unsafe sexual activities with men for money because times are hard. “The men pay them for sex so that the girls can pay their school feels or buy much needed items to look after themselves,” he said.