MEN CONTINUE TO MAKE up the majority of HIV/AIDS cases in Barbados and affected Barbadians are waiting too long to get treatment.
Minister of Health Donville Inniss stated this at the media launch of Regional HIV/AIDS Testing Day at Hilton Barbados on Friday.
Quoting the Barbados HIV Surveillance Report 2008, Inniss said that between 1984 and 2008, 3 166 people were diagnosed with HIV and 1 989 men (63 per cent) were men.
“During this same period, more men than women were also diagnosed with AIDS. Of the 2 126 cases diagnosed, 1 448 (68 per cent) were men and 678 (32 per cent) were women,” he said.
Inniss, quoting from the report, said 1 436 HIV positive people in Barbados died during the same period – 45 per cent of the total. Of that number, men constituted 73 per cent.
“At the end of 2008, there were 1 730 people known to be living with HIV in Barbados. This is 0.62 per cent of the population. It should be appreciated that the percentage population with HIV is higher as there are many people with the disease not yet diagnosed,” he said.
In 2008, 156 people were newly diagnosed with HIV in Barbados; there were 93 new AIDS cases and 37 AIDS related deaths. All of these statistics were dominated by men.
Inniss said 60 per cent of people with HIV were at the advanced stages of the disease by the time they were first seen for treatment, advanced enough for treatment with anti-retroviral drugs.
“The data I have just presented is very similar to that which is gathered in other Caribbean countries and they all show that more people, especially men, need to get tested for HIV, and those with the disease need to get diagnosed earlier and into care sooner,” he said. (CA)
