An AIDS conference in Papua New Guinea has been told that more than 70 per cent of young Papua New Guinean women are being forced into secret, casual sex by consumer pressures.
Charles Pepe from the Morobe Province Aids Council estimated that percentage of the country's 13-25-year-old female population was at a high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS.
He blames the high cost of living and infatuation with modern consumer goods, including mobile phones, for pushing young women into a clandestine sex industry.
Mr Pepe told an HIV/AIDS conference in Lae that large numbers of young women are swapping sex for cash, leading to a rapid increase in HIV/AIDS rates among females in this age bracket.