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The Caribbean is the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS in the world outside sub-Saharan Africa.



Nine out of the 12 countries with the highest HIV prevalence in the Americas are in the Caribbean basin.



AIDS has become a major cause of death among men and women in the 15 to 44 age group in several countries.



An estimated 60,000 adults and children became infected during 2000 in the Caribbean island states.



By end 2000 some 390,000 adults and children were estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS, compared with 360,000 at the end
of 1999. However, given the lack of consistent data from some countries and the uncertainty around such estimates, the real number could well be closer to 500 000.



The epidemic continues to spread in the region, devastating countries’ economies and various sectors, including education, health, agriculture, and business.



According to the most recent figures, over 7% of pregnant women in urban Guyana tested positive for HIV.



Haiti is the worst-affected nation in the Caribbean. In some areas, 13% of anonymously tested pregnant women were found to be HIV-positive. Overall, around 8% of adults in urban areas and
4% in rural areas are infected. It is estimated that 74,000 Haitian children had lost their mothers to AIDS by the end of 1999.



In the Bahamas the adult prevalence rate is 4%. In the Dominican Republic 1 adult in 40 is HIV-infected, while in Trinidad and Tobago the rate is 1 adult in 100.



In some countries the epidemic has had a slower start. In Saint Lucia, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands fewer than 1 pregnant woman in 500 tested positive for HIV in recent surveillance studies, but this is no reason for complacency.



Heterosexual HIV transmission in the Caribbean is driven by the deadly combination of early sexual activity and frequent partner exchange by young people. For example, in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a quarter of men and women in a recent national survey said they had started having sex before the age of 14, and half of both men and women were sexually active at the age of 16.



In Trinidad and Tobago, in a large survey of men and women in their teens and early twenties, fewer than a fifth of the sexually active respondents said they always used condoms, and two-thirds did not use condoms at all.



Age mixing - younger women having sex with older men - also drives the Caribbean epidemic. HIV rates are five times higher in girls than boys aged 15-19 in Trinidad and Tobago. At one surveillance centre for pregnant women in Jamaica, girls in their late teens had almost twice the prevalence rate of older women.

Thanks Dragron for posting this information, see u been checking out UNAIDS.ORG Speeches. I'm really happy that someone else took the initiative other than isfantsy,socajunkie,strongblkprincess and myself.

I checked this post out since earlier this afternoon, however I was having problems loggin in from the pc @ the aids walk caribbean office. Now I'm home and still no one has posted. Makes me wonder, has it hit a nerve in ur bodies/u choose to ignore it, thinking that IT CANNOT HAPPEN TO ME.
People u better wake up, this is one DISEASE, THAT DON'T CARE ABOUT UR COLOR OF UR SKIN, HOW MUCH MONEY U HAVE, WAH DEGREE U GOT, U STATUS IN SOCIETY AND ALL THE THINGS WE TEND TO VALUE IN LIFE.

BUT YET U'LL CONTINUE TO TURN UR HEADS THE OTHER WAY. DON'T WAIT UNTIL IT KNOCKS ON UR DOOR. READ THE STATS, U MIGHT say stats lie, my view on that is, it's in our communities here and back home as Dragon posted. I don't care about the stats, I care about keeping the infection rate down.
So I Challenge my fellow west indians, please stop turning up you nose and pay close attention. Do what is right, for yourself and others.

Please get u and ur partners tested, earlier the better u can get help, contact me and I can reffer you to Drs.


Remember NO GLOVE NO LOVE
Ladies u have to love urself enough to say no to sex without a condom. Don't worry sis u can find another man who will respect ur choice. Is sex more important than u life, think about it. How long ur sexual escapades last. Life is priceless, value it and protect urselves.



My name is Jaunelle
Telphone # is 718-451-5699

I also encourage you to support the islandmix team for Aids Walk Caribbean on July 13th. Contact soca Junkie & islandftsy

This could be ur first step intaking a stand as we chip down flatbush avenue until there is a cure.


Love u'lll

These are some very tragic numbers....We must protect ourselves Guys Box with you gloves.... Ladies no glove no love....We cannot afford to take chances!!! Notorious

HIV/AIDS and U.S. Blacks

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Non-Hispanic blacks represent 30 percent of all reported acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases in the United States, but make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population. While the total number of reported AIDS cases historically has been highest among whites, racial/ethnic minority groups in the United States have always been overly represented in proportion to population size, and the numbers continue growing.

Through June 1993, 97,794 U.S. blacks have been reported to have AIDS; more than 50,000 of those persons have died. In 1992 alone, 15,897 AIDS cases among black Americans of all ages were reported to CDC.

In 1992, the AIDS case rate among blacks (52.2 per 100,000 population) was nearly 3 times higher than among the total U.S. population (18.2 per 100,000). Among black men, the 1992 AIDS case rate was 112.6 per 100,000; among black women, 27.2 per 100,000; and among black children under age 13, 6.4 per 100,000.


Cumulatively through June 1993, CDC had received reports of 315,390 AIDS cases in the United States, with 51 percent among non-Hispanic whites; 31 percent among non-Hispanic blacks; 17 percent among Hispanics; 0.6 percent among Asians/Pacific Islanders; and 0.2 percent among American Indians/Alaska Natives.

Racial and ethnic disparities in AIDS incidence are more striking for women and children than they are for men:
Of adult and adolescent blacks reported with AIDS in the United States, 21 percent are female. In comparison, among the general U.S. adult/adolescent population, 12 percent of people reported with AIDS cases are female.

In 1988, in both New York State and New Jersey, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/AIDS became the leading cause of death among non-Hispanic black women 15-44 years of age.
Six of every ten U.S. children with perinatally acquired AIDS are black. More than 2,500 AIDS cases have been reported among black U.S. children under the age of 13, and 95 percent of them acquired HIV infection from their mothers during pregnancy or at birth.

HIV/AIDS is the second leading cause of death for non-Hispanic black children 1-4 years of age in New York State.


For more information, contact:
CDC National AIDS Hotline: 1-800-342-AIDS (2437)
Spanish: 1-800-344-7432
Deaf: 1-800-243-7889

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Public Health Service
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

We cannot go around acting like promiscuity and horning is cool. It’s not cool to horn somebody and bring home HIV to your partner. It’s a shame the statistics are there, yet only a fraction use condoms. They should toss them into the crowd at fetes or something (I’m not trying to be funny) I saw condom vending machines in metro stations in Paris. Why not have them in the main areas of Port of Spain, Port Au Prince and Santo Domingo? Friday is pay day I intend to hit up my coworkers and have my sister bring the sponsor sheet to her job so funds can be raised. This is something we can’t wait on “whoever” to help us.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

It baffles me to think that people may not be protecting themselves in this day and age.

HIV Infection Reporting in Canada

Introduction
The most recent Canadian HIV and AIDS surveillance report indicates that the total number of AIDS cases and positive HIV tests reported in Canada to June 30, 2002 are 18,336 and 51,470 respectively.
The positive HIV test results reported to the Center for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control (CIDPC) are from only those who test positive for HIV through nominal, non-nominal or anonymous testing in the provinces and territories, and whose results are reported to CIDPC by their respective health authority or HIV testing laboratory.

This Update provides the most up to date information available on HIV infection reporting in Canada. It describes the types of HIV testing available in each province and territory as well as the jurisdictions in Canada where HIV infection is notifiable.

A notifiable disease is one that is considered to be of such importance to public health that its occurrence is required to be reported to public health authorities.

When HIV infection is notifiable it is required by law that it must be reported to the public health authority in the area in which the diagnosis was made. As a notifiable disease must be reported, the two terms, notifiable and reportable, are used interchangeably in discussing HIV/AIDS reporting in Canada.

HIV Infection Becomes Notifiable Across Canada
As of January 2003, HIV infection was legally notifiable in all provinces and territories except British Columbia; however, it is expected to become notifiable in British Columbia on May 1, 2003. Eight provinces and territories had HIV reporting legislation in place by the mid- to late-1980s. The remaining five will have instituted legislation between 1995 and 2003.

In most testing situations, laboratories and physicians are responsible for reporting HIV infection, but this varies by province or territory.

When HIV infection is notifiable, 'nominal/name-based' or 'non-nominal/ non-identifying' information about an individual who tests positive for HIV is forwarded to provincial or territorial public health officials.
This includes demographic data, such as the person's age and gender; risks associated with the transmission of HIV; and laboratory data, such as the date of the person's first positive HIV test.

HIV infection is not legally notifiable at the national level yet notification to CIDPC is voluntarily undertaken. All positive HIV test reports are provided non-nominally to CIDPC.

HIV testing patterns within the general population, along with the profile of people being tested, are important for designing and targeting intervention programs2, and for developing a context for HIV/AIDS surveillance data.
Three Types of HIV Testing Available in Canada
Canadians choosing to be tested for the presence of HIV infection may have three different testing options depending on the province or territory in which testing takes place:
1. Nominal/name-based HIV testing
May be carried out at numerous locations, including clinics and the office of a health care provider.
The person ordering the test knows the identity of the person being tested for HIV.
The HIV test is ordered using the name of the person being tested.
There is collection of patient information (such as age and gender, as well as city of residence, name of diagnosing health care provider, country of birth); information detailing the HIV-related risk factors of the person being tested; and laboratory data. The amount of information collected is dependent upon the province/territory.
If the HIV test result is positive, the person ordering the test is legally obligated to notify public health officials of the person's positive test in those jurisdictions where HIV is notifiable.
The test result is recorded in the health care record of the person being tested.

2. Non-nominal/non-identifying HIV testing
Similar to Nominal/name-based testing on all points except:
The HIV test is ordered using a code or the initials of a person being tested (not the full or partial name).

3. Anonymous testing:
Usually available at specialized clinics, organized and supported by public health departments and by some health care providers.
The person ordering the HIV test does not know the identity of the person being tested for HIV.
he HIV test is carried out using a code. The person ordering the HIV test and laboratory carrying out the testing on the blood sample do not know to whom the code belongs. Only the person being tested for HIV knows the unique, non-identifying code.
Age, gender, HIV-related risk factors and ethnicity of the person being tested for HIV may be collected during anonymous testing depending on the province or territory in which the test is ordered or on the test site.
Test results are not recorded on the health care record of the person being tested. It is only the person being tested who may subsequently decide to give their name and include the HIV test result in his or her record.
The Availability of Anonymous HIV Testing (AHT) May Increase Testing
As anonymous testing offers the highest degree of confidentiality, it may encourage more people to come forward for HIV testing and counseling.
An evaluation study of AHT in Ontario suggested that AHT provides testing to a populations that are not otherwise accessing testing.
Several studies in the United States have shown that AHT programs encourage people to be tested for HIV, especially those at high-risk or who would not volunteer for testing under nominal/name-based or non-nominal/ non-identifying circumstances.
In its first year of operation, AHT sites in Ontario tested approximately 5% of the total tested population, and most often served individuals at high risk of HIV infection, especially men who have sex with men.
Comment
As of May 1, 2003 HIV infection is expected to be legally notifiable in all provinces and territories, however, each of these has a different practice for reporting HIV infection. Legislation of HIV infection reporting in all Canadian provinces and territories may increase the number of tests received at CIDPC. A change to mandatory reporting of HIV infection in Alberta in 1998 resulted in a significant increase in HIV tests among both men and women.9 As a result, making HIV notifiable across Canada should allow for the collection of more complete epidemiological data as well as enable more accurate and timely monitoring of the HIV epidemic.
All provinces and territories in Canada offer at least one form of HIV testing: 1) nominal/name-based; 2) non-nominal/non-identifying; and/or 3) anonymous testing. At present, nominal/name-based and non-nominal/non-identifying HIV testing is widely available in Canada; however, anonymous HIV testing is available in only eight provinces. Increased availability and accessibility to different types of HIV testing may allow individuals to choose the testing and counseling environment in which they feel most comfortable, thereby encouraging more people to be tested and facilitating the targeting of intervention and treatment programs.
For more information on HIV testing, please contact your provincial or territorial public health department.

This was not necessarily a post that has to have responses.... I think it was more of a informative post... I may be overeacting here but I always get confronted by people saying that we don't seem to care about the AIDS epidemic and I find that highly unfair. I did not post of of dragon's post that doesn't mean that I'm ignoring it. Me and my family know for one that AIDS has no form of discrminiation. We have lost over 5 people to this deadly disease (the last one being 2 weeks ago) ranging from the age of 2yrs to 40 yrs. And we're nursing others still just because some people have addictions to drugs and to infidelity and not protecting themselves. That has pushed us to be members of TAS (Tobago Aids Society) and FOTAS (Friends of Tobago Aids Society) in Miami. And through hard work we are trying out best to educate these people that continue to think that they are superheroes and that "I will never get it". It's really sad... and i think if you experience a funeral for a 2 yr old, whose coffin could fit on your stomach that you would realize the severity and sadness of this diesease..but not everybody gets this opportunity.

What irks me a lot about these "activists" for AIDS (and again Calabash this is not geared to you) is that they always seem to want to say "these young people just loose". And that was told to me one day at a workshop. Why??? I know statistics show that we are the infected but does that mean that we are the only ones having unprotected sex?? Dese "old people" protecting themselves???... ahhh... anyway

MY main point is I don't think that the majority of us here are turning our noses... we are teribbly concernd about AIDs and it's Level in our communities.. I know for me that sometimes i need to just get it out of my face cause I've had it IN MY FACE but that doesn't mean I doh care...

We have the same goal: I don't care about the stats, I care about keeping the infection rate down.


~Bless~

International Statistics

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, as of the end of 2002, the following trends of the worldwide epidemic (or pandemic) of HIV are evident:

Today, 42 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS. Of these, 38.6 million are adults. 19.2 million are women, and 3.2 million are children under 15.

An estimated 5 million people acquired the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2002, including 2 million women and 800,000 children under 15.

During 2002, AIDS caused the deaths of an estimated 3.1 million people, including 1.2 million women and 610,000 children under 15.

Women are becoming increasingly affected by HIV. Approximately 50%, or 19.2 million, of the 38.6 million adults living with HIV or AIDS worldwide are women.

Thank you Shandy. this disease is wiping out our young folks and will continue to do so unless they start taking the proper precautions. people need to stop being so flippin closed minded about this and face reality. AIDS has no gender preference, no family preference and no color preference. it strikes without warning and takes whomever is in its way. i know this from experience. my sister was only 22 when she was diagnosed and 5 months later, she was dead. she didn't listen to anything i had to say while she was growing up because she thought i was being bossy. she paid the ultimate price for her ignorance. still, i see my damn cousins and them screwing everything in a skirt and they are married. one of them told me he has an iron D*** and nothing will happen to him. that is the ignorant sh** i can't deal with. they live back in trini and are sleeping with all the girls in the community, who in turn are sleeping with everyone else, so the cycle will continue and they will keep dropping like flies. i've lost a lot of people i knew to AIDS, not only in the caribbean but in Canada and the US as well. some of them protected themselves and were clean until that 'one time'. and that is what we fail to realise. it only takes one time and your life can change forever.

That's the kind of ignorant thinking that's killing alot of people. Like those Condom vending machines in Paris, the idea of no glove-no love has to be imbedded in these young people's minds, in thier faces. I have a cousin who's involved in an arts group she and her group gave hand outs at some of the fetes in regards to protecting yourself against HIV. Why are there so many people who think "it can't happen to them" it's very sad.

__________________
"If u put a small price on ur value.. rest assure that the world wont raise ur price! Love U 2day!" ~ Rev. Run

"If you keep believing in yourself and seek enthusiasm inside your soul, things will get simpler, more spontaneous." ~Paulo Coelho

"Knowledge is like the wind, once you obtain it, you can go anywhere." ~Yellow Hare(Native-American Chief)

Be the kind of woman that when your feet hit
the floor each morning the devil says:
"Oh Crap, She's up!"

This is the "BIG PICTURE", the most serious part of horning that people ignore. It's not just about being faithful, it's about respecting your body and that of the person that you are sexually involved with, in love with, etc... Even when you have "safe sex" while being promiscuous, it still increases your chance of contracting HIV and passing it on to your partner. Condoms are not 100% safe. The safest sex is exclusive, monogomous sex between two HIV negative partners.

this is a very serious subject.. the other problem is that a lot of ppl don't think they can get it.. and that denial thing is a big problem...

Researcher: Dirty needles underestimated as AIDS cause

WASHINGTON (AP) --The World Health Organization's long-held position that dirty needles cause 2.5 percent of African HIV exposures is too conservative, says a leading researcher at the U.N. agency, prompting questions about a congressional bill focused mainly on unsafe sex.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has launched a review of all research linking AIDS and medical injections, possibly laying the groundwork for changes in how the legislation's $15 billion in funding is distributed.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, a member of the Senate's health panel, requested the review after he turned up a WHO report listing four separate studies that find dirty needles responsible for 8, 15, 41 and 45 percent of exposures in sub-Saharan Africa.

The report, dated December 19, 2002, concludes that "the lowest attributable fraction calculated on the basis of the data provided by the authors (8 percent) exceeds our 2.5 percent modeled attributable fraction, suggesting that our estimate is conservative."

Yvan Hutin, a WHO researcher who wrote the report, acknowledged the 2.5 percent number was probably low, although just how low remains a point of debate. Regardless, he said, it would be wise to consider an education campaign on unsafe needles, perceived by many as an easier and cheaper problem to correct than unsafe sex.

"It remains a very good investment to do injection safety," said Hutin, reached at WHO headquarters in Geneva. "It doesn't matter whether it's 2.5 percent or more or less."

Sessions, however, contends it would have mattered while Congress was balancing the spending priorities in the AIDS bill, which President Bush signed last month. If the widely recognized figure was even a little higher, he said, Congress would have poured far more money into needle education -- and possibly even a clean-needle exchange program.

But some at WHO say cost isn't the only issue. Because it is widely believed that sex is more responsible for AIDS than needles, they contend the message would be diluted if needle and sex education were given equal weight.

"We'd all like to see there be no unsafe injections," said George Schmid of WHO's Department of HIV/AIDS. "But to begin to place a large emphasis on the unsafe injections, which likely would be at the expense of resources devoted to unsafe sex, would be an unwise decision. We need to keep the resources where the problem is."

That position outrages Sessions, who suspects it's the reason WHO continues to tout an estimate its researchers acknowledge is low.

"This is hogwash," he said. "It's about numbers. It's about infections. You can certainly carry two messages. This is a life-and-death issue. Whatever bureaucratic objections are occurring here have got to be overcome because people are dying every day."

A major part of the AIDS bill could be rerouted if new research about injections surfaces, Sessions said. But HHS officials aren't saying how likely that is, or even when the study is expected to be finished.

"Like Sen. Sessions, we too are interested and concerned with how AIDS is actually transmitted," said HHS spokesman Bill Pierce.

Sessions' interest in the connection between AIDS and injections was heightened in March after he invited Dr. David Gisselquist to testify to the Senate. After reviewing some 19 years of research, Gisselquist concluded that at least one-third of AIDS exposures in sub-Saharan Africa are due to contaminated needles in medical treatment.

Gisselquist contends that because WHO's focus has been on unsafe sex for so long, it's deliberately overlooking good research like his. But although Hutin now doubts the 2.5 percent number, he says Gisselquist's estimate is inflated.

"If WHO says we should put more emphasis on health care risks, people will say, 'Why didn't you do it the last 15 years?"' Gisselquist said.

Similar concerns are raised by Gary Cohen, president of BD Medical Systems, a New Jersey-based company that makes disposable syringes that permanently lock after they're used once. The syringes cost about 6 cents each, he said.

For $75 million to $100 million a year, Cohen said, all of Africa could be supplied with the safe syringes. He contends that a needle distribution program is the most effective way to combat the problem because many people in Africa don't have the option to demand clean needles.

I am really happy to read about these statistics, and your postive attitudes towards reducing prevelant rate of the spread of AIDS. I believe education is the key. Many of us feel that this is about others, as though it will never affect us, as alot of us have not felt the hurt of losing a loved one to the disease, or actually saw what an agonising process it can be to die of AIDSrelated causes.

Many of us Windians I believe are strongly in denial about the prevelance of HIV/AIDS.
Parents make me feel sick when I hear them say they do not want Sex education and condom distribution in schools. Let´s face it...young people ARE having sex. Have been and always will. Education is the key.