Latest HIV statistics not encouraging

The statistics on HIV and AIDS for the second quarter of 2007 have been released and they do not make for happy reading. According to the report issued by the Ministry of Health there were one hundred and thirty-seven new cases of HIV infection recorded from April through June. This compares to seventy in the same time period in 2006 and ninety-three for the previous quarter, January through March. It’s a big jump, the kind of increase usually explained by a corresponding rise in the number of people tested. Such was not the case this time however, as although the number of people tested rose by nineteen percent from last year, the number of positives increased by ninety-six percent. The same trend was demonstrated in the testing of pregnant women. In that more random sample of almost two thousand mothers-to-be, the prevalence rate more than doubled from 2006 to 2007 from point five percent to over one percent. Officials with the National AIDS Programme caution that statistics need to be analyzed over the long term and quarterly results can be misleading. In the absence of a convincing explanation, however, the latest numbers suggest that no matter how loud the anti AIDS message, Belizeans may not be getting it.