No-one knows how many are infected. But with the rate of reported cases doubled in the past 18 months, it’s the rate of increase that’s causing concern. Some predict that one in four Papua New Guineans will be infected with HIV within ten years. Tessie Soi, a social worker and one of the country’s few qualified AIDS counsellors, has seen it coming for years. “Maybe we’re just going to go under”, she says. In addition to the personal tragedies, the social implications for the country are deeply worrying. Vincent was a 28 years old lawyer and the mainstay of his family. His death may have condemned them to a life of endemic poverty. Grass-root activists fight an up-hill battle to educate people. But with no television outside the capital, virtually no radio - and with more than 800 dialects to deal with - getting the message out to the villages requires ingenuity and dogged determination. “It’s the hardest country on earth to try to educate people about AIDS”.

Produced by ABC Australia