Bahamas: An “underground prostitution ring” and homosexual relations between males present the biggest challenges in The Bahamas’ fight against HIV/AIDS...

Minnis: HIV/AIDS fight challenged by prositution, homosexuality

BY KRYSTEL ROLLE
Guardian Staff Reporter
thenassauguardian
krystel@nasguard.com



An “underground prostitution ring” and homosexual relations between males present the biggest challenges in the country’s fight against HIV/AIDS, according to Health Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis.

“The only challenge we find now is that there is the male to male sex relations - we have to deal with that,” Minnis said. “And there is the hidden or underground prostitution. Prostitution is illegal but there is an underground ring that occurs. Therefore we have to aggressively try to determine where they are and deal with those approximately. So education is key.”

According to the minister, up to December 31, 2010 The Bahamas had a total number of 12,095 HIV infections, of which 6,335 cases were AIDS and 5,760 were HIV positive.

“That’s the accumulative total. Of the 12,095 infections 4,333 occurred in young adults between the ages of 15 and 44 and the male-to-female ration with HIV is 1 to 1.1.”

“I also want to point out that at the end of December 2009, 2,152 were receiving antiviral medication at no cost to them,” said Minnis who did not have last year’s figures.

Minnis said while the fight against AIDS remains an uphill battle, the ministry has had some successes.

“When we look at mother-to-child transmission, there was a 30 percent transmission rate in 1995. In 2006 we brought that down to two percent. I’m happy to announce that in 2010 we had no cases of mother-to-child transmission. The treatment is working [well],” Dr. Minnis said.

He credited the hard-working staff of the HIV/AIDS associations across The Bahamas.

“I think they are doing an excellent job in combating and fighting AIDS,” said Minnis. “The staff is doing an excellent job and of course the goal going into the UN meeting next week is to move towards zero.”

Minnis added that the government received assistance from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) agreement it has with United States.

The Bahamas is one of 12 Caribbean countries that receive monetary grants from the United States to fight the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Under the agreements the countries share $25 million annually.

Jun 06, 2011

thenassauguardian

Bahamas: Successful HIV/AIDS treatment makes disease rate appear higher

By ALISON LOWE:

Tribune Staff Reporter -

alowe@tribunemedia.net:

IN AN ironic twist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, success in treating people living with the virus has seen The Bahamas appear to have a higher HIV/AIDS rate than resource-poor countries like Haiti.

According to Perry Gomez, director of the National Aids Programme, the fact that there are now fewer people dying from AIDS in The Bahamas thanks to wider access to medication and awareness has meant there are more people alive to be recorded in the statistics which are shared internationally.

Currently, The Bahamas is documented by the Joint United Nations AIDS Programme (UNAIDS) as having an HIV/AIDS rate among people aged 15 to 49 of three per cent.   The same grouping in Haiti has a rate of 2.2 per cent, Cuba, a 0.1 per cent rate, Jamaica, 1.6, Trinidad and Tobago, 1.5, and Barbados, 1.2.

"The fact is we have done such a good job of keeping people alive has added to the figures.   The fewer people who die, the more you have with AIDS alive. And so when one looks at country data, and this is important for us.   You might wonder why our prevalence remains being reported relatively high, higher than some countries that might surprise you."

Dr Gomez said it is "important to understand the nuances of statistics."

"As someone once said, 'There are lies, damn lies and statistics'," joked the official.

Over the last three years the number of cases where HIV progressed to AIDS has diminished significantly.

By the end of 2008, 185 new cases of AIDS - the final stage of HIV infection, which sees the body's immune system weakened to the point that it has serious difficulty fighting infections - had been recorded in The Bahamas, compared with 221 in 2007 and 329 in 2006.

The highest ever number of cases in one year of HIV progressing to AIDS - a progression which is more rapid if HIV positive individuals do not take anti-retroviral drugs - was 382 in 1997, and the rate has decreased year on year ever since.

Of the 185 AIDS cases in 2008, 65 people died and 120 remained alive at the end of the year.

Dr Gomez noted that this ensured that there were fewer people who died of AIDS last year than who lost their lives as victims of murder.

This success in keeping sufferers alive is in contrast to struggling countries like Haiti, where fewer people who contract the virus seek or receive treatment and therefore often die, removing them from data that is documented by international organisations which monitor the pandemic.

On top of the impact of this success on the rate, Dr Gomez claimed to "totally believe" that international organisations have exaggerated the Bahamas' rate, pegged at around three per cent.

The rate would also be increased by the success of a Know Your Status Campaign which continues to encourage people to get tested for HIV/AIDS.

Mr Gomez revealed that last year the National AIDS programme had been able to get "significant testing done" in the "men who have sex with men" community (MSM) in The Bahamas, a group which is known to be more likely than most not to seek testing or treatment for fear of discrimination.

The introduction of a new "rapid testing" technique, now available at all public clinics in New Providence and about to be launched across Grand Bahama, is expected to make a further impact in this regard, adding to the numbers of people who know their status by making the experience less time consuming.

The testing technique, which is as accurate as traditional methods, enables people to get tested and receive their results in less than half an hour - much quicker than the days in which people would have to wait to get blood test results back from a laboratory.

October 07, 2009

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