Seminar Series: Abstract

11.00 am
July 02 2009
Seminar Room B (Arndt Room)

Interrogating a Statistic: HIV Prevalence Rates in PNG
Elizabeth Reid

The paper is a reflection on whether the HIV epidemic in PNG can be understood through its official prevalence data and through international conceptualisations of HIV epidemics. It is argued that different epidemics have different natural histories, different driving forces, and that these need to be understood in order to understand the epidemic, to 'see' where it might be in geographic and social terms, that is, to understand its spatial and social diffusion, and where these might take it. The paper explores distinctions between generalised and contained epidemics, emerging and mature epidemics, between understandings in terms of 'risk groups' or 'risk settings' and in terms of an epidemic's clustering and dispersal and the forces that shape these flows. The evidence base for such understandings is explored, as it the relevance or otherwise of these various conceptualisations to the PNG context.