HIV/AIDS education management: meeting the challenge of universal access in Papua New Guinea

In June 2006 at the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS), United Nations member states agreed to work towards the goal of universal access to comprehensive prevention, care, treatment and support by 2010. One of the key obstacles to scaling-up comprehensive HIV care and treatment in resource limited settings is the lack of appropriately trained health care workers. Experiences with comprehensive HIV care suggest that key factors such as using a team approach, task shifting between health care workers, simplified drug regimes and integrated services have been shown to be integral to the successful provision of comprehensive care. Using Papua New Guinea as a key example, this paper argues that the lack of capacity in health care workers is a key barrier to achieving increased access to comprehensive care in resource limited countries and therefore further research in this area must be seen as a key priority in the response to the HIV epidemic