The Papua New Guinea government is being urged to provide help with funeral costs.
The comment comes as the authorities in the capital prepare to mass bury 60 bodies of people who died at Port Moresby General Hospital and have been in the morgue for more than a month.
Most of the dead are victims of HIV/AIDS and the founder of a non-governmental organisation that cares for children orphaned by the disease says stigma around infection remains.
The Friends Foundation's Tessie Soi says people still abandon infected relatives but many others turn a blind eye because they cannot afford a coffin or grave.
"We don't have anything as a system you know to assist these people. I mean we've got programmes, like I know the NCD governor has a funeral programme, that came out, I think it was a campaign a couple of years ago."
Tessie Soi says she has not heard anything about that since the election and so doesn't know where to refer people who ask for help with burial costs.
