Pacific nations warned of AIDS threat

March 20, 2004
ABC News Online, www.abc.net.au

Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs has warned that Pacific Indigenous populations run the risk of being wiped out unless they respond to the worldwide HIV-AIDS pandemic.

Pacific program coordinator for the Joint United Nations Program on HIV-AIDS, Stuart Watson, says Pacific states with small populations could prove particularly vulnerable to the disease.

"The introduction of HIV-AIDS into the picture I think is a very volatile situation," he said.

"When you're dealing with a country like Tuvalu with a population of roughly 10,000 people and already a number of cases, you're looking at the possibility of wiping out an entire country, eliminating an entire population."