AIDS cases worry Councillor WESTERN BUREAU: FREDERICK MILLER, Council-lor of the Green Island Division of the Hanover Parish Council is concerned with the alarming number of reported AIDS cases in Hanover, and has urged health officials to implement a rescue plan for the parish. Speaking at a recent general meeting of the Council, Mr. Miller expressed concern about the toll the epidemic is having on his division, which has been classified as one of the high-risk areas. "We have quite a number of Aids victim in and around the Green Island area and according to reports the situation is similar in other areas of the parish," Councillor Miller said. "I want to know what programmes the Ministry (of Health) has for the parish in so far as AIDS is concern," Mr. Miller added. Green Island, one of the parish's striving small towns, is in close proximity to the popular resort town of Negril. The parish now occupies the third position in the National HIV/AIDS survey, falling behind St. James and Kingston and St. Andrew as the leading parishes with Aids cases. Chairman of the Parish Council, Mayor Lloyd Hill said before the Council takes its case to the Ministry of Health they are going to request from the Hanover Health Department a comprehensive report on the HIV/AIDS situation in the parish and the programmes they have implemented. "Before taking the matter to the highest level, let's find out what the local health department has on its card and if there's need to draft in the Ministry (of Health) we'll do just that," Mayor Hill assured. Hanover's prevalence rate is frightening taking into consideration its population of over 70,000. The parish occupied the third position three years ago but slipped to the fifth and sixth positions in 1999, since September last year it has been holding firm at the third position. The health department has reported a decline in other Sexual Transmitted Diseases (STDs) such as syphilis and gonorrhoea. Since 1985 when the first case was reported to April this year, 119 persons in the parish have been inflicted with the disease, over 80 per cent of those persons have since died. Over a 16-year period, the number of HIV cases reported in the parish stand at 109. The majority of full-blown AIDS cases falls within the 30-39 age group which recorded 44, the 40-49 age group recorded 19 (all males), the 50-59 age group has 17, 60 and over recorded 8 (six of which are females), the age group 20-29 recorded 23. They were two reported cases for the 15-19 age group (females only), the age group 10-14 had none, one male topped the 3-9 age group and five within the one to two age group. The high-risk areas in the parish have been identified as Lucea, Green Island, Chester Castle, Hopewell and Sandy Bay.
|
