AIDS report is not good news
The Ministry of Health has released its second quarterly report on HIV and AIDS…and the news is not good. The study, conducted by the National Health Information Surveillance Unit Between April and June, reveals that in just three months, sixty-seven more persons have tested HIV positive and that eighty percent of them are between the ages of twenty and forty-four. Martha Carillo, co-ordinator for the National AIDS Commission, says these cases represent only those reported as a result of people going to get tested. She cautions that nation-wide there are far more people living with the virus who may not even know it.
Martha Carillo, Co-ordinator, National Aids Commission
“This latest report from April to June is showing us a picture that is really scary, but very real. And I am very happy that the Ministry of Health has presented this quarterly report in a very sincere manner.
This is a very serious situation because it is showing us that sixty-seven persons who have actually gone and gotten themselves tested are HIV. And what we have to ask ourselves is how many persons are out there who don’t even think or don’t even want to believe that they could be are vulnerable to this particular infection. And I think that is really what is scary.
I think it is important for people to understand the life span of the virus and the way it develops. What we are seeing today is a manifestation of infections that were acquired six, eight, ten years ago. And really, what this is telling us is that is what was happening in 1994, 1995, and 1993. But then we have to look at what is happening right now. Are people really listening to the messages of HIV and AIDS? Are people really going to get themselves tested and are people really protecting themselves? And I think that is what we really need to look at. And I think that all the efforts that are being made by the National AIDS Commission, civil society by the Government of Belize…the results will be reflected in the personal responsibility that is demonstrated whenever we take action in our own personal lives with regard to this particular issue.”
Carillo says that while originally most HIV positive people were men, the latest figures show a virtually identical infection rate for men and women. Since 1986, one thousand, six hundred and seventy-seven persons have been tested positive for HIV. Four hundred and five have been diagnosed with AIDS and over the past ten years two hundred and eighty Belizeans have died as a result of the disease. The report is available from the Surveillance Unit located at the old Belize City Hospital. The next quarterly report should be ready in two weeks time.
