14 DAY TRIAL // Billions of dollars are spent annually worldwide on a research meant to find a vaccine or cure against HIV/AIDS, but some tackle the problem on a very basic level. In order to "cut the evil at its roots", as the saying goes, in some areas of Papua New Guinea AIDS victims are buried alive by relatives who could not take care of them after getting ill and fearing they could become infected themselves.
Margaret Marabe, a volunteer of the organization Igat Hope (Pidgin English for I've Got Hope) spent five months on an AIDS awareness campaign in the remote Southern Highlands of the Papua.
"I have seen five people buried alive. One was calling out "Mama, Mama'' as the soil was shoveled over his head. One of them was my cousin, who was buried alive. I said, 'Why are they doing that?' And they said, 'If we let them live, stay in the same house, eat together and use or share utensils, we will contract the disease and we too might die'.'' said Marabe. She found from the villagers that it was a widespread habit for people to bury AIDS victims alive.
Marabe called to the Government and aid agencies to spread the HIV/AIDS awareness program from cities and towns to the rural areas, where there is absolute ignorance about the disease.
According to the Papuan belief, death is not accepted as a natural phenomenon, but it is always the result of the evil action of a spirit, in most cases headed by a witch or wizard. Women suspected of practicing witchery have been tortured and murdered by mobs, blamed for the "mysterious" deaths of young people hit by HIV infection.
A new UN report has signaled PNG is confronting an AIDS catastrophe and that there are already 90 % of HIV infections in the Oceania region. HIV cases have been increasing by around 30 % annually since 1997, with a current number of 60,000 HIV positive Papuans in 2005, over 1 % of the population.