Latest AIDS statistics show no dramatic progress

And while health authorities prepare for the possibility of an Avian Flu outbreak, they must also deal with the existing scourge of HIV and AIDS. The Ministry of Health has released the 2006 annual statistics on the virus and while the numbers are open to interpretation, it appears that neither side in the struggle can claim victory. According to the National AIDS Programme, there were a total of four hundred and forty-three new HIV infections reported in 2006, compared to four hundred and thirty-four in 2005. In forty-three cases the virus resulted in AIDS last year versus thirty the year before. In 2006, seventy-five Belizeans died of AIDS, one less than in 2005. One area where there was a significant change from year to year was the ratio of men to women contracting the virus. In 2006, two hundred and fifty-three males tested positive and one hundred and ninety females, while in 2005 the numbers were two hundred and twenty-four and two hundred and ten respectively. For men, the greatest number of positive cases was spread fairly evenly over the twenty to forty-nine age group, while women testing HIV positive tended to cluster heavily in the twenty to twenty-nine range. Since 1986, three thousand, eight hundred and five HIV infections have been diagnosed in Belize with seven hundred and one people dying from AIDS.