NADI (Fiji): One of the worst aspects of living with AIDS is the social death that comes with it, an HIV-positive French Polynesian advocate told a Pacific youth conference here on Sunday.

“The media has named HIV/AIDS the deadly virus, what is deadly is the people. The worst thing is when one is already struggling to live and people around them kill them socially,” said Maire Bopp Dupont.

“People can live through anything, HIV/AIDS is just like any other disease or virus but what is worse than anything else is having to do it on your own.”

Dupont stressed the need to let go of cultural and religious inhibitions.

The conference is a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) initiative, but the catalyst was the practical exclusion of Pacific small island nations from any meaningful discussion during last year’s International Congress on AIDS in Asia and Pacific in Melbourne.

“The delegates from the Asia-Pacific region were left in a corner with more emphasis on the bigger countries which had more delegates or clout so we thought, why not have one of our own?” said UN official Dr Ayoade Olatunbosum-Alakija.

Fijian rugby stars opened the congress.

Loose forward Koli Sewabu said no one could afford to “continue to be myopic” about the plight of young Pacific islanders.

UNICEF Pacific representative Nancy Terreri told delegates that the young people were the hope of the region in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“New statistics show that there are 14,000 new infections daily in the world and of this, 6,000 are of people between the ages of 15-24 years — nearly half are the young people,” Terreri said.

“We hope you, our youth, are really going to change the course. The congress is a vital opportunity to share information on issues related to the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people.”

Terreri said she was hopeful the meeting would generate a recognition for the need to further develop capacity of youth to “change the course”.—AFP