Latest statistics not encouraging, says AIDS ambassador
Statistics on HIV and AIDS for the third quarter of this year have health officials concerned that more than twenty years after first detecting the deadly virus, Belizeans are still not getting the message. The problem is not only that a growing proportion of those being tested are coming up positive, but that not enough people are taking the test. Today we asked chairperson of the National AIDS Commission, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, whether Belize is winning or losing the battle.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, National AIDS Commission Chairperson
?At the moment I think we are still on the losing side because the figures keep going up, but at the same time we know several things. We know that the reason for all these people testing is still about seventy percent confirming what is highly suspected because people are already getting sick. So people are getting tested late in the course of the epidemic and late in the course the disease that they have which means that they are a lot of thousands of people walking around out there who may not know that they?re infected, finding out late and that is not helping out the situation of all the various agencies fighting HIV/AIDS in Belize. Our official statistics when you like at the U.N.A statistics it is saying that we have about a two point five percent adult prevalence rate of HIV in Belize. My own feeling is that we have gone past three percent.?
The rising infection rate is not the only focus of anti-AIDS efforts. According to Balderamos-Garcia, treating those already living with the disease is a task for all of us.
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?You need people to assist other people because it?s all of our problem. I have a responsibility if I know my neighbour is taking anti-retroviral pills, three in the morning and three in the evening, its just as much my own responsibility as that person?s own responsibility to stay on that medication. People on medication are less infectious. If they are receiving counselling and support they are less likely to have risky behaviour. And with more and more people getting tested as we continue to encourage throughout all our members of the National Aids Commission I believe in a couple of years time we will be able to say that we don?t have the problem beat but we starting to get on top of it.?
Stewart Krohn, Reporting
?There are many facets to the AIDS problems. You?ve got the prevention of infection, you?ve got stigma and discrimination and you?ve got treatment of people who already have the disease, do we have the resources to take care of all these parts of the AIDS problem??
Dolores Balderamos-Garcia
?I don?t think that we are so severely challenged on resources at least the financial. Now we are challenged on the human resources because the Ministry of Health in particular and the Ministry of Human Development which is seeing their whole system being completely taxed. We need to have maybe another five hundred people on the medication but also to stem the flow of new infections because you will always be playing catch-up. You can have a hundred percent of your people who need the medication on it but you will be playing catch-up if the prevention isn?t there as well. We?re encouraging everybody to get that test and to begin changing that behaviour. The message cannot be said too often and I don?t want to be the Cassandra but we just need to get on top of this thing and its just getting people to listen.?
As Balderamos-Garcia stated, the majority of people who seek an HIV test do so because they already feel sick. Another large group of people tested are pregnant women who are screened as part of their prenatal care programme. The population segment that is not responding to testing campaigns are those Belizeans who feel fine, but may still be carrying the virus. According to experts, until that group–which includes most of us–volunteers for testing, the epidemic will continue to spread.
