On the eve of World AIDS Day, observed on December 1st each year, UNAIDS is reporting that, in 2008, there were 12,000 AIDS-related deaths in the Caribbean, about 240,000 people were living with AIDS, an increase of 9 percent since 2001 and new HIV infections were around 20,000 in 2008.
In its recently released “AIDS Epidemic Update”, November 2009, UNAIDS says that AIDS-related illnesses were the fourth leading cause of death among women in the Caribbean in 2004 and the fifth leading cause of death among Caribbean men.
While the Caribbean has seen some sharp declines in the HIV incidence in some Caribbean countries earlier in the decade, the latest evidence suggests that the Region’s rate of new infections has stabilized.
Behavioral data is hard to come by in the region and so it is difficult to judge the impact of HIV prevention efforts. This said, UNAIDS maintains that additional efforts are needed to improve HIV surveillance in order to get a fuller picture of the epidemic and for informing national strategic planning.
The UNAIDS report points out that the national HIV burden differs greatly within countries in the region, from an extremely low HIV prevalence in Cuba to a 3 % adult HIV prevalence in The Bahamas. There are substantial differences too, in the HIV burden within many Caribbean countries. Women account for close to 50 percent of all infections in the Caribbean. Adolescent and young women have elevated HIV prevalence rates, significantly moreso than their male counterparts in their own age group.
Although the Caribbean region outside the sub-Saharan Africa region has the second highest level of adult HIV prevalence (1%), important gains have been made in access to HIV treatment. For example, whereas in July 2004, 1 in 10 Caribbean residents were being treated with antiretroviral drugs, by December 2008, treatment coverage had risen to 51 percent. This is much higher than the global average for low-and middle-income countries (42%).
The majority of AIDS cases reported in the Caribbean involve heterosexual transmitted infection, but other methods are, men who have sex with men, injecting drug use and HIV prevalence was also found in prisons.
World AIDS Day seeks to increase awareness, fight prejudice, improve education and raise money for fighting the epidemic. It is also a reminder that HIV is still very much present and continues to pose a threat to sustained development in many countries throughout the world.
Source: unaids.org
