Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Dr Peter Figueroa, has said that although the incidence 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.
Persons unaware
Dr Figueroa, speaking at the International Conference on Adult Education at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, recently, 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 an 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, surveys show that the rates are significantly high among female sex workers.
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