In the past year, about 500 women in Papua New Guinea have been attacked or murdered by mobs of people claiming they are witches who have cursed the Pacific island nation’s younger generation with AIDS. The main evidence against the women, according to one report, is that they walk differently from others. Papua New Guinea accounts for 90% of all infections in the Oceania region, in part because of high rates of violence against women.
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
