BETWEEN 20 and 30 HIV positive cases are confirmed per day in Lae and Morobe since 2011 and that figure is increasing, a councillor and former health worker says.
Daisy Fege, Ward 11 councillor in the Ahi LLG and a former laboratory technician said that last Friday when announcing her plans to organise Ahi villagers to commemorate World AIDS Day on Dec 1.
Fege, who worked in the public health sector in the Mamose region for 38 years before retiring in 2011, said from her time as a lab technician blood samples from those affected showed that people between 18 and 35 were most vulnerable.
She said she wanted to use the World AIDS Day to stage a public open day so that Ahi villagers and Lae residents could attend and learn about HIV and AIDS.
“We will have teachers, nurses and health workers available to help people out,” Fege said.
“There will be a one-week awareness programme in all Ahi villages leading up to the World AIDS Day commemoration.”
She said about 40 volunteers had assisted her doing clean up and preparation work for the open day to be staged near the Ahi LLG office in Malahang.
“It is a community thing but we are asking business houses nearby to assist us stage the programme,” Fege said.
She said the purpose of staging day was to tell people that HIV/AIDS was real and had claimed many lives.