While a great deal of discussion focused on the impact of the disease in Africa, not much attention has been paid to the small island nations, UNICEF New Zealand executive director Dennis McKinlay told the opening of a Pan Pacific Regional HIV-AIDS conference.
The conference coincides with the launch of a global UN campaign to focus attention on the HIV-AIDS pandemic.
"The impact of an accelerated HIV infection rate in the South Pacific could annihilate all the development achievements in the last 30 years and it will be children and young people who suffer the greatest impact," McKinlay told the 450 delegates.
"Whereas a great deal of discussion has focused on the impact of HIV-AIDS in Africa, not much attention has been paid to small island nations such as the South Pacific, where a rapid HIV epidemic could jeopardise the very survival of peoples, languages and nations."
He said Pacific islanders need to realise the disease threatens their children's future.
"The good news is that the South Pacific is one of the last places on earth where we can have a positive impact in slowing the spread of AIDS, but that window is closing fast." Gillian Mellsop, head of UNICEF, South Pacific, said prevention was the key to stopping an HIV-AIDSs catastrophe in the region. "A major cause for alarm is that the majority of new infections occurring among young adults are among women, threatening to lead to more generalised epidemics," she said. Though data was limited, 1,028 HIV cases have been reported in the Pacific Island countries excluding Papua New Guinea, where the UN estimates 40,000 people live with the virus.