Inter Press Service - Tuesday, November 17, 1998
Lloyd Nicholas

Organisers of this event, the main one being the Trinidad-based Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) are hoping that this gesture will receive widespread support as health workers try to come to grips with the rising incidence of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

The target group for the broadcast which will take the form of a panel discussion, is the 15 to 44 age group, as according to CAREC, 70 percent of persons diagnosed with the disease falls into that group.

According to a recent study made public by CAREC, almost two in every 100 Caribbean residents between the ages of 15 and 50 are infected with the virus. "The number of AIDS cases reported each year has continued to increase, unlike some other regions in the world," the report says.

Between 1993 and 1994, the number of new cases which came to the attention of the authorities in the region doubled, moving from 5,000 to 10,000, the report adds.

In Antigua/Barbuda, population 64,000, three in every 100 persons have been found to be HIV positive.

In the northern Caribbean island of Jamaica, population, 2.5 million, the total number of reported cases since 1982 when the disease was first discovered, stands at 3,109. Of this number 1,832 persons have died.

In Belize the National AIDS programme (NAP) estimates that at present there are 2,000 persons carrying the HIV virus. Since the virus was first detected there in 1986, 205 persons have died - 127 men and 54 women. All were in the 25-44 age group.

Belize is currently ranked as having the second highest per capita rate of HIV infection in the Central American region, after Honduras.

Overall, the Caribbean region is the second in the world to Sub- Saharan Africa when it comes to HIV infection rate.

Health workers are concerned that despite these statistics more and more young people are still engaging in irresponsible sexual behaviour.

A recent contraceptive prevalence study conducted in Jamaica noted that almost 60 percent of the 15 to 19-year-old girls reported that they were sexually active, while for boys the figure was 75 percent.

But the survey found that less than 50 percent of these persons use a condom or some other form of contraceptive. In an a ttempt to address this situation some family planners in Jamaica would like to see a programme in place for the distribution of condoms in schools. That proposal, coming from the National Family Planning Board in Jamaica has, however met with opposition from some parents and teachers.

"...You could do riot to some of the values the school is trying to achieve by introducing condoms," says one teacher.

Sonia Brown, a housewife and mother of two children ages 15 and eight, says condoms should be given on request but not as a general rule.

"I feel sex education classes should be given to educate the children, but to distribute condoms unless a child asks for it is like encouraging those who are not sexually active to begin to do so," she says.

"If my child came home with a condom I probably would be annoyed," she adds. In Trinidad and Tobago, Health Minister, Hamza Rafeeq has advocated that condoms should be available not only in pharmacies but on supermarket shelves as the country steps up the fight to contain the spread of AIDS.

In 1995, 170 persons died of AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago and by 1996 the figure had climbed to 256. Cumulative AIDS deaths for the period 1983 to 1996 have been put at 1,614.

Rafeeq's call was both praised and criticised in a country where 70 percent of the population subscribes to the Roman Catholic religion. But CAREC says, if implemented, the plan would only allow this twin-island state to catch up with the rest of the region.

According to Cheryl O'Neil, Communication Adviser at CAREC, countries like Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Suriname, Martinique and Guadeloupe already have condoms on sale in supermarkets.

"The only realistic option for reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS ... is more widespread use of condoms by couples engaged in sex," notes one observer. (END/IPS/he/ln/cb/98)
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