14,000 AIDS deaths recorded in Caribbean last year

from the Jamaica Observer

Despite the grim headline, the report releasing these stats shows some leveling off on the number of new infections. More funding has contributed to to that stabilizing of new cases. - Kale

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - At least 14,000 people in the Caribbean died of illnesses related to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) last year, but there appears to be a stabilisation in the HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to figures released here on Tuesday.

The figures, which were released as part of the Caribbean Launch of the UNAIDS Global report 2008, showed that last year an estimated 230,000 to 270,000 persons were living with HIV, while an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 were newly infected.

"We have made some headway against HIV in the region," said Dr Michel de Groulard, acting director of the UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team.

"But we still have a long way to go to ensure that our response is as effective as it should be and that our prevention strategies really work and reach those who need them most," he added.

In a message read at the launch, Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary General Edwin Carrington said that 27 years after HIV/AIDS was first identified in the region, the epidemic is challenging "our basic way of life, family, society, community and workplace".

"Many Caribbean families have lost their loved ones to AIDS, many communities have lost their leaders and their members to AIDS. In addition, the persistence of stigma and discrimination against people living with AIDS is an affront to the principles of human rights," he said.

"How many times has someone been denied a job because they are living with HIV?" Carrington asked.

The Caricom top official, however, pointed to some positive news in the fight.

"Despite the somewhat gloomy picture which the data suggests, there has been substantial progress in the Caribbean. It is the only region in the world which has built strong partnerships against the epidemic," Carrington said, pointing to the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP).

United Nations officials said that although surveillance systems were largely inadequate in several countries, available data indicated that the situation in most Caribbean countries appears to have stabilised, while the numbers have declined in a few urban areas.

"This is particularly evident in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both countries are home to the largest epidemics in the region," according to UNAIDS.

It said that at the end of last year, an estimated 30,000 people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral treatment in the region, a 50 per cent increase since the end of 2006 when 20,000 people were on treatment.

UNAIDS said that the main mode of HIV transmission in the Caribbean remains unprotected heterosexual sex, but "unprotected sex between men is also a significant factor in several epidemics".

It added that as many as one in eight, or 12 per cent of reported HIV infections in the region occurred through unprotected sex between men.

"It reportedly represents the main driver in Cuba and studies in Trinidad and Tobago have found HIV prevalence of 20 among men who have sex with men.

"In the Dominican Republic, surveys have indicated that more sex workers are protecting themselves and their clients against HIV, especially in the main urban and tourist areas. Among female sex workers, HIV prevalence of nine per cent has been documented in Jamaica and 31 per cent in Guyana," the UNAIDS report said.

It said that AIDS remains one of the leading causes of death among people aged 25 to 44 years in the Caribbean, but the "scaling up of antiretroviral treatment could be reducing the number of HIV positive people progressing to AIDS and eventually dying of AIDS-related illness".

UNAIDS said that the Caribbean epidemics occur in the context of high levels of poverty and unemployment, gender and other inequalities and considerable stigma, "all of which can fuel the spread of HIV as well as hinder efforts to control the epidemic".

"The scaling up of prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV programmes in several countries including Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica has significantly reduced the rate of transmission to infants," the report said.

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