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 JOHNNY is raising three young sons in the settlement of Wanigela, a Port Moresby shantytown. His wife, Vavien, died from AIDS in 2007. She didn't want to go to hospital and faded away in a grimy shack on Koki Bay.
Johnny and Vavien had continued having unprotected sex, despite knowing her condition. She became pregnant and now Johnny's youngest son, Aaron, 3, is HIV-positive. Aaron gets sick, often. He takes a prophylactic drug called Septrin that keeps opportunistic illnesses at bay.
As for Johnny, he doesn't know whether he's HIV-positive or not. He's never had a test and says he doesn't want one.
Fear of the truth and of stigmatisation, along with polygamy, promiscuity and an entrenched refusal by men to adopt safe-sex habits, has allowed HIV and AIDS to run unchecked in Papua New Guinea, our closest neighbour. It is estimated that HIV and AIDS infection now affects more than 2 per cent of the population, though that will explode to 5 per cent by 2012.
HIV and AIDS is a generalised, heterosexual epidemic that will soon consume 70 per cent of PNG's health resources. Already, half of Australia's annual $358 million in aid goes on HIV and AIDS programs.
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