Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Associated Press - Friday October 30, 1998
Tony Fraser, Associated Press Writer
Dr. Rawle Edwards said Friday the rate of infection of people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, jumped from 35 cases per 100,000 population in 1996 to an estimated 300 cases per 100,000 this year.
In the 15-to -19 year-old group, seven times as many females as males are infected, most through heterosexual contact, Edwards said.
"At this rate, our young female population of child-bearing age will be decimated," said Edwards. "Let us no longer deceive ourselves into believing that this is a disease which only affects homosexuals and drug users."
Edwards said a pattern of older men infecting young women and minors has been detected. Part of the cure consists of building better self-esteem among young women and urging better educated women to help counsel younger, more vulnerable females, he said.
The virus threatens to become entrenched in Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island nation of 1.2 million people off the coast of Venezuela, Edwards said. "We have been averaging some 35 deaths per month from the disease," he said.
In the United States, an estimated 0.76 percent of the population carries the virus, while infection rates are estimated to be as high as 25 percent in some African countries.
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