HIV Bahamas

HIV/AIDS Awareness - The Bahamas

There were 156 newly reported cases of HIV infections in The Bahamas in 2024 - according to Bahamian health officials.  There were 3,988 people living with HIV in The Bahamas at the end of 2024,  says Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Michael Darville, who noted that the figure represents 1.1 percent of The Bahamas population.

"Since 2010 new reports of HIV cases have decreased by 47 percent," he said.

Dr. Nikkiah Forbes, director of the National HIV/AIDS and Infectious Disease Programme at the Ministry of Health, said New Providence residents made up 82 percent of the new infections.  Grand Bahama residents accounted for 10 percent of the new cases, and the remaining eight percent were across the remaining islands.

Dr. Forbes said males represented 63 percent of the HIV cases in The Bahamas.

She said people between the ages of 30 and 39 accounted for 36 percent of those infections.  Those between 40 and 49 accounted for 19 percent of the new infections.

Seventeen percent of the new cases were 50 and over, and 14 percent were between ages 15 and 24.

Dr. Forbes said there was one recorded case of mother to baby HIV transmission.

While prejudice, ignorance and hatred are still directed against homosexuals, we have made moral progress in The Bahamas in terms of loving and seeking to protect from abuse and discrimination our gay brothers and sisters

Prejudice, ignorance and hatred must be challenged

thenassauguardian

Nassau, The Bahamas

Dr. Perry Gomez, Director of the National HIV/AIDS Programme, is the leading Bahamian expert on HIV/AIDS with a stellar regional and international reputation for combating the disease.

He has been on the forefront of the fight since the onset of the epidemic in the early 1980s.  Dr. Gomez has helped to save lives by advocating for prevention, testing and treatment.  The first Caribbean HIV Conference, recently held in The Bahamas, was an occasion for both the country and the good doctor to be recognized for the many successes in combating HIV/AIDS.

These successes are many in terms of intensive prevention awareness and education efforts; aggressive medical treatment, including in mother-to-child transmission for pregnant women, and measures to address stigma and discrimination in various areas related to the disease.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, through his foundation has honored Dr. Gomez and recognized The Bahamas as an international leader in the fight against AIDS.  Dr. Gomez has earned his medical and moral credibility in fighting the disease through dogged advocacy and by journeying as a doctor and as a friend to many who have succumbed to the disease and others who continue to live with HIV.

 

SUPPORT

It was noted at the HIV/AIDS conference:

“The Bahamas has been a leader in developing legislation to protect the rights of minorities and others living with HIV.  In 1991 The Bahamas was the first, and is still the only country in the region, to decriminalize homosexuality.  The Bahamas was the only Caribbean country to sign the Paris Declaration in 1994, which set global standards for HIV and human rights.  We also strengthened protection from discrimination for HIV positive individuals in the workplace by amendment to the existing labor laws in 2001.”

Experts recognize the role that the reduction in stigma plays in preventing the disease, treating those affected, and reducing the incidence of the disease.  Nearly three decades after the onslaught of the epidemic there is still much to be done, especially on the prevention side.  There is also work to be done in the prevention of stigma and discrimination as evidenced by the unfortunate comments by Bishop Simeon Hall a few weeks ago.

Bishop Hall enjoys speaking out on all manner of issues.  In the past few years he has developed a reputation for being glib, and for being something of a publicity seeker.  Often he opines on matters of which he is exceedingly ill-informed.

At a labor conference in the past, a labor leader was stunned when Bishop Hall spoke to the gathering and pressed for additional protections for workers and changes to labor laws, unaware of the fact that most of the matters on which he opined had already been changed through new legislation.

Such behavior may be considered somewhat comical and harmless, but his comments relating to gays and HIV/AIDS were neither.  Indeed, they were extremely harmful even though Bishop Hall tried to backtrack in the face of criticism.  In yesterday’s Insight column in The Tribune, Joey Gaskins analyzes Bishop Hall’s doublespeak.

 

DEMONIZED

Prejudice has always used ignorance and fear as its natural allies.  This is the means through which groups of people such as gays and lesbians are demonized and dehumanized.  Early in the AIDS crisis gays were ruthlessly demonized, with some using the disease as a warped metaphor for the supposed innate depravity of homosexuals.

We have come a long way in fighting the epidemic and the prejudice.  Yet we still need to be vigilant on both fronts.  What is refreshing is the response to Bishop Hall’s comments by medical experts, activists, journalists and others.

Bishop Hall is not the only religious figure who has used specious thinking to demonize homosexuals.  Pastor Lyall Bethel systematically demonizes homosexuals, using fear as one of his weapons while saying that he actually loves gays and lesbians.

A few months ago when The Bahamas supported a UN resolution which sought to protect various vulnerable groups from torture and violence, Front Porch criticized a group of ministers for their response to comments made by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette in support of the resolution.  (See “When Hatred Triumphs Over Love”, July 5, 2011).

Conveniently and retroactively, Pastor Bethel and his cohorts said they agreed that gays and lesbians should be protected from such violence.  Then why didn’t they demonstrate their love by quickly supporting the resolution instead of conveniently so doing after being criticized?

Worse, in response to the July 5 Front Porch Pastor Bethel was exceedingly disingenuous, fabricating that the column espoused gay marriage, one of the red flags which the apostles of discrimination often wave with abandon.  Readers will find no such reference.  But such fabrications and the employment of disingenuous moral and intellectual thinking is par for the course for extremists.

 

UNCOVERED

In another Insight column some time ago Tankea Thompson uncovered the source for some of Pastor Bethel’s tortured thinking, namely a Dr. Fields he has quoted to support his views.  A letter to the editor referenced her column:

“According to Ms. Thompson, the Dr. Fields that Pastor Bethel quoted to support his demagoguery is a known white supremacist, neo-Nazi and member of the Klu Klux Klan.”  She also notes: “Conservatives, who in the past have unwittingly cited Fields’ material, have publicly apologized and distanced themselves from Fields.”

Not only did Pastor Bethel not apologize, he defended his use of material from Dr. Fields by saying that people today quote from slaveholders like some of the American Founding Fathers.  The illogic behind this will not elude most basic students of logic or moral reasoning, though it seems to have eluded the pastor.

While prejudice, ignorance and hatred are still directed against homosexuals, we have made moral progress in The Bahamas in terms of loving and seeking to protect from abuse and discrimination our gay brothers and sisters.

Ironically, it is good when those like Bishop Hall and Pastor Bethel issue their screeds.  It highlights the demonization and ignorance that must still be fought.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us this during his struggle against prejudice and discrimination in America.

Sometimes the world’s moral heroes wear a clerical collar, sometimes they don’t.  Often, the moral heroes are people like Dr. Perry Gomez and the many others who have sought to uphold the moral dignity and protections of those living with HIV/AIDS.  This includes gay men who often in the face of stigma and the effects of the disease know that they are no less a valued citizen of this country and a child of God, made as much in His image and likeness as Pastor Bethel and Bishop Hall.

www.bahamapundit.com

frontporchguardian@gmail.com

Dec 06, 2011

thenassauguardian

Young Bahamians and, HIV and AIDS education in The Bahamas

'PEOPLE NOT INTERESTED IN AIDS EDUCATION'

By DANA SMITH
dsmith@tribunemedia.net

Nassau, The Bahamas

THE Bahamas Red Cross has found that young Bahamians are not interested in assisting with HIV and AIDS education, one of its representatives said yesterday.

Amanda Lewis, Red Cross Project Coordinator, was a presenter at the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference, where she spoke on the difficulties in raising HIV-AIDS awareness among young people.

She explained how factors such as low interest from young people in HIV-AIDS education and a "lack of association" between HIV-AIDS work and The Bahamas Red Cross hindered the Red Cross' efforts in organising education programmes.

At the conference, Ms Lewis unveiled a new project, The Caribbean HIV-AIDS Project (CHAP), where young people can become peer educators, and teach their peers about safe sex, HIV, and AIDS.

Ms Lewis said that recruiting young people to be Peer Educators was the "main challenge" of CHAP.

"It's very difficult to get young people involved in something that they might not see the value in, right away," she said.

Despite this, according to The Bahamas Red Cross, CHAP was able to educate more than 5,000 young Bahamians on HIV prevention, this year alone.

"It's a two-year programme sponsored by the American Red Cross and being implemented by the Bahamas Red Cross," Ms Lewis said.

"I train peer educators with knowledge about HIV prevention and safer sex, and they in turn go into their communities and educate their friends, family members, and peers."

She continued: "The research shows that young people are more receptive to hearing information from somebody in their age group.  It's seen more as sharing information rather than being lectured to."

Ms Lewis said she "had to do a lot of work" to recruit young Bahamians to participate in the project, stating that she found "low levels of interest" from youth in becoming peer educators and "feelings of fatigue" from youth in becoming involved in an organisation, in general.

Ms Lewis also described how many Bahamians did not realize the role the Bahamas Red Cross played in HIV-AIDS education.

"Community members did not associate the Bahamas Red Cross Society with HIV-AIDS work so it was very difficult for us to establish ourselves and get the programme started," Ms Lewis said.  "This lack of association had a big impact on the difficulties we faced when we were recruiting."

However, The Bahamas Red Cross was able to recruit 42 young Bahamians to become peer educators, with 36 remaining active in their communities.

"We've had great success.  One of our targets for the project was that there would be 4,000 young people reached by our peer educators in their communities by the end of the second year, and by the end of the first year, we've met just under 6,000," Ms Lewis said.

Colin Scavella Jr, the Lead Male of CHAP's peer educators said he got involved with CHAP because he "found that there was a need in the different communities throughout Nassau" for HIV-AIDS education.

"In the beginning, the response was kind of reluctant, but once you start, people start talking to people.  I speak to a group today, and tomorrow they bring their friends.  By the time you realize it, in the space of a week's time you've already spoken to 30 or 40 people," Mr Scavella said.

"It's like a domino effect - you speak to one or two people, and it trickles down from there."

November 21, 2011

tribune242