Anguilla News covers Anguilla and the wider
Caribbean.
x
Death Rate
from Sexually Transmitted Diseases Declines in Jamaica.
(Kingston, Jamaica) Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS in the
Ministry of Health and Environment in Jamaica, Dr. Peter
Figueroa, has said that although the prevalence of sexually
transmitted infections (STIs) continues to rise, the death
rate from these infections, particularly HIV/AIDS, has been
declining.
This he says is due to the success of the Ministry's
national AIDS/STI programme.
Dr. Figueroa, who was speaking at the International
Conference on Adult Education at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel
on March 17, said it is estimated that there are 25,000 to
27,000 people living with HIV in Jamaica and that, as many
as 12,000 are not aware that they are living with the virus.
He urged all sexually active persons to get an HIV/AIDS test
done in order to adequately tackle this epidemic.
"We need to expand testing. "Everyone needs to get tested
once you are sexually active and we're trying to encourage
that," he said.
"We estimated adult HIV prevalence of 1.5 per cent.for the
last 10 years the prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in
public clinics, has remained stable at 1.5 per cent. It
means that we have been able to put some hold on the spread,
but it is not yet adequately going down but what is
encouraging there, is that the death rate has come down
significantly and that is due to our anti-retroviral (ARV)
treatment programme," Dr. Figueroa explained.
He said however, that the prevalence among those who are
most at risk, like homosexuals, is very high and is
estimated at 25 per cent. Similarly among female sex
workers, surveys show that the rates are significantly high.
"If the rates are high in these vulnerable populations, then
there's always the potential for increased rates being
transmitted to the population as a whole," he said.
Meanwhile, he pointed out that more males than females are
affected by HIV/AIDS and that the primary reason is because
of the risky behaviour of males.
"When we interview persons living with AIDS in Jamaica, what
we find is that 80 per cent of them report multiple sex
partners. Nearly 50 per cent of them report having some
other sexually transmitted infection at some time. A quarter
of them have participated in commercial sex - either buying
sex or selling sex..What is also instructive is that nearly
20 per cent of persons reported with AIDS in Jamaica have
none of these risk factors and these persons, mainly women,
are at risk for AIDS or HIV infection through the sexual
behaviour of their partner," Dr. Figueroa informed.
In highlighting the successes of the AIDS/STI programme in
Jamaica, which he described as being 'comprehensive and
multifaceted,' Dr. Figueroa said the mother to child
transmission has been reduced due to the effectiveness of
the treatment programme.
"We now have 88 per cent women who are pregnant, who are HIV
positive now getting the anti-retroviral medication. What
this means is that we have reduced the transmission rate
from mother to child from 25 per cent that is (from) one in
four children now down to about one in 20 children," he
said.
Dr. Figueroa said that despite having nearly 4,000 people on
treatment and putting 100 new persons on treatment nearly
every month, the response to the HIV programme and the
treatment programme has to be strengthened.
"If we are going to turn around this epidemic, we're going
to have to increase our investment in prevention ten-fold.
This is not easy. It requires a lot of resources and it's
not easy to conduct prevention programmes of high quality on
a wide scale," he stressed.
Stating that 15 million condoms need to be distributed each
year in order to adequately address the problem, Dr.
Figueroa revealed that young people are the most sexually
active, but are least able to access the condoms because
they are afraid to approach people in their communities, to
go to the pharmacies, or they may not have money to purchase
the condoms, therefore, they do not use them.
He said there are many behavioural and social factors
driving the HIV/AIDS epidemic such as poverty and sexual
practices. "It is not a straightforward issue and this is
what makes it so complicated," he added.
"If we're really going to make a difference, then the
society is going to have to face up to the social
vulnerabilities that many people face and put them at risk
of HIV and we also have to face up to having a more
sophisticated discussion about the kind of policies that we
need," Dr. Figueroa stressed.
