The Jamaican Situation

The United Nations Special Session on HIV/AIDS was told by Jamaica's Health Minister John Junor that AIDS has become a major threat to the most productive segment of the Caribbean's population.

He said that it is the leading cause of death among men and women in the 15 - 44 age group and holds the potential for undermining the productive capacity of crucial sectors such as education, health, agriculture and business.

Mr. Junor reported: In Jamaica, the rate of HIV infection is one to two per cent of the adult population. New HIV infections in adolescents have been increasing alarmingly since 1995 and adolescent females have three times higher risk of HIV infection than males the same age.

The overall case fatality rate for AIDS is high and has contributed to an estimated 2,000 children being orphaned because of the loss of a mother or of both parents to AIDS.

At the end of 2000, there were 5,099 reported cases of AIDS in Jamaica with a case fatality rate of 61 per cent (3,131 persons have died).

An analysis of the sexual practices of those infected indicates that the majority (about 60 per cent) report that they are heterosexual; nearly three per cent report that they are homosexual and nearly four per cent were reported as bisexual males.

The risk behaviour analysis of those infected indicates that most of them have a history of sexually transmitted infections (nearly 39 per cent); nearly 32 per cent report multiple sexual partners and 23 per cent report sex with prostitutes. The balance report a crack and cocaine use and intravenous drug usehabit.

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