News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Tues. Sept. 24, 2013: The most pronounced decline in new HIV infections since 2001 has occurred in the Caribbean.
That’s according to the latest UN AIDS report. The report says there has been a 49 percent decline in new infections in the Caribbean last 12 years alone.
There were 11,000 new infections reported in 2012 compared to 22,000 in 2001.
Deaths rates have also fallen off from 24,000 in 2001 to 9,400 last year.
There are even indications of a reduction in HIV prevalence since 2007 among sex workers in the Caribbean, analysts said.
The bad new is there is a somewhat lower but still high levels of HIV infection reported among men who have sex with men in the Caribbean as well as Latin America.
People living with HIV in the Caribbean as of 2012 are estimated at around 220,000. That’s compared to 280, 000 in 2001. Haiti still leads with the most reported HIV cases at 150, 000 but that is down from 160,000 in 2001.
The Dominican Republic experienced the largest drop, down from a reported 64,000 in 2001 to 45,000 last year while Jamaica was down from an estimated 34,000 in 2001 to 28,000 last year.
