Barbadians’ reluctance to change their sexual behaviour remains one of the biggest challenges to fighting HIV/AIDS.
The AIDS Foundation of Barbados made this comment in a statement released yesterday.
It indicated that the majority of Barbadians still needed to abandon “risky sexual practices”.
The foundation also said that stigma and discrimination raised barriers in the effort to check the prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
This was because they tended to prevent people from accessing the information and materials necessary to protect themselves and their partners,
the foundation explained.
The foundation noted a “very high” prevalence and incidence of HIV among the adult population.
“The statistics show that the highest prevalence of HIV in Barbados (based on age groups), 1.38 per cent, is actually evident in the 30-39 year age group, the dominant working age,” it noted.
“Given the dominance of information on the disease and the high incidence, it becomes evident that the fundamental challenge of behaviour change remains our number one issue – behaviour change to tackle risky sexual practices and stigma and discrimination which tends to prevent people from accessing the information and materials necessary to protect themselves and their partners.”
The foundation said each side in the debate on condoms in schools had presented “compelling remarks to support their position”, even in the face of the stark knowledge and facts that students were indeed engaging in sex”.
