Know Your Status
World AIDS Day is celebrated globally on December first; the occasion is used to encourage persons to get tested and prevent the disease. On this the thirtieth anniversary, there are worrisome figures that place Belize as one of the countries with the highest rates in the region. There are two hundred and twenty-three new infections despite free access to anti-retroviral. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Across the country, as many as four thousand, five hundred persons are living with HIV/AIDS, making its prevalence in Belize one of the highest within the region. Despite a systematic effort by the National AIDS Commission to educate and inform about the ravages of this illness, many are still engaged in risky sexual behavior.
Enrique Romero
Enrique Romero, Executive Director, NAC
“Last year, the Ministry of Health reported over thirty thousand HIV tests done. Of those numbers, we have two hundred and twenty-three new infections which may not seem like a lot for a country like Belize, however, it is considerably high. It is estimated that there are four thousand, five hundred persons living with HIV/AIDS in Belize and we have a prevalence rate of one point nine percent. So that is one of the highest rates in the region. There were also one hundred and eight deaths related to HIV/AIDS. That is unacceptable given the fact that the Government of Belize provides anti-retroviral medication free of cost to patients, however, we must be cognizant also that one of the biggest deterrents for testing an accessing healthcare is the whole issue of stigma and discrimination.”
House Speaker Laura Longsworth, who is also chair of the National AIDS Commission, has spoken on the issue of stigma and discrimination.
Laura Longsworth
Laura Longsworth, Chair, National AIDS Commission
“People with HIV/AIDS are really stigmatized. Some people are thrown out of their homes. Some people are ashamed because if people know that they are HIV positive, they will talk about them and so they don’t take their treatment. Our problem is really one of a people problem. We’ve got to be more friendly to our people, we have to remember that it’s a human rights issue.”
December first is celebrated annually as World AIDS Day. This year, it is the thirtieth anniversary of a pioneering global health campaign first initiated by the World Health Organization in 1988. The focus is to urge people to know their HIV infection status through testing and to access HIV prevention, treatment and care services.
Enrique Romero
“What we have done apart from the usual testing that has taken place countrywide, we have decided to give back to organizations that are working directly with persons living with HIV/AIDS. So what we did, we collaborated with some private enterprises, specifically Grace Kennedy Belize Ltd., Santiago Castillo Ltd., the Ramada Hotel, as well as human development in putting together nutritional packages that we are handing over this morning to organizations, like I said, who work with persons who live with HIV/AIDS.”
So where is Belize in the fight against AIDS? There is currently a move to urge local policy-makers to promote a “health for all” agenda for HIV and related health services.
Laura Longsworth
“Belize is very much on track, we have anti-retroviral free of cost. We have services free of cost. We have health services free of cost, we have mentoring services and we’ve also been paying keen attention to our key populations – men who have sex with men, and so on, because we have to open up that environment. We have to remove it from the personal problem that we have with key populations and move it into a setting where it’s a human rights setting and we also have to worry about our children. We have a few children living with HIV. If we don’t set the stage for them when they are sixteen and eighteen and it’s time for them to look after their own medication, they will also not take their medication and they are going to die.”
Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
