30% of Ja Chi-Chi Men have HIV

[Hortical]

Male to male sex hurting Caribbean - Report shows homosexuality major cause of HIV transmissions
published: Wednesday | July 30, 2008

Andrea Downer, Freelance Writer

Mexico City, Mexico:

The United Nations says unprotected sex among men, who have sex with men, is one of the main causes of an increase in HIV infections in the Caribbean.

UNAIDS yesterday released its 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, which gives a comprehensive overview of the progress made by countries worldwide in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

Global approach weaknesses

The report also looks at weaknesses in the approach to the global epidemic, which is fuelled by different things in different countries.

According to UNAIDS, while unprotected sex between men and women is the region's main driver of HIV transmission, unprotected sex between men is also a significant factor.

Unprotected sex between men reportedly represents the main driver of the HIV epidemic in Cuba, and studies in Trinidad and Tobago have found 20 per cent HIV prevalence among that group there.

Jamaica's country report for 2008, submitted to UNAIDS in January this year by the Ministry of Health, indicated that the HIV prevalence rate among Jamaican men who have sex with men is between 25 and 30 per cent.

Fuelling the epidemic

According to UNAIDS, the Caribbean's HIV/AIDS epidemic is also fuelled by high levels of poverty, unemployment, gender and other inequalities, including considerable stigma.

AIDS remains one of the leading causes of death among people aged 25 to 44 years in the Caribbean. Approximately 25,000 persons in Jamaica are HIV positive but, of that number, only half are aware that they are infected.

The report has been released a week ahead of the International AIDS Conference which will be held in Mexico City this year from August 3-8.

Approximately 20,000 delegates from around the world are expected to attend the biennial conference.

Regional stats

As many as one in eight, or 12 per cent, of reported HIV infections in the region occurred through unprotected sex between men.

Known HIV infection in the region has increased by almost 50 per cent.

At the end of 2007, an estimated 30,000 people living with HIV were receiving antiretroviral treatment in the region.

At the end of 2006, only 20,000 people were on treatment.

[Historian]

Heterosexual Population?

According to UNAIDS, while unprotected sex between men and women is the region's main driver of HIV transmission, unprotected sex between men is also a significant factor.

According to UNAIDS, the Caribbean's HIV/AIDS epidemic is also fuelled by high levels of poverty, unemployment, gender and other inequalities, including considerable stigma.

The issue of those homosexuals is an important one. Nevertheless, my greater concern is with the rapid movement of the virus across to the heterosexual population, something that has been happening over the past two decades-plus.

For example, how many faithful wives and girlfriends have contracted HIV from their unfaithful partner, and vice versa? This, in turn, leads to major morality-based questions, including (for example) what should a wife do when her drunken husband comes home late after a night clubbing, and then expresses his desire to have sex with her? How can the average poor woman insist and get her belligerent husband to use a condom continuously?

Also, and equally important, are those garrison communities of Jamaica, which tend to operate outside of the rule of (state) law. The last quoted paragraph above would apply in particular to environments such as the garrisons, where "high levels of poverty (and) gender inequalities" persist. How does a mother tell a multiple-sex-partner-each-night don or his gun-toting cronies that they cannot have sex with her daughter? How do defenseles women avoid the possibility of contracting HIV in such environments and situations?

It is a frightening scenario, and the truth is that at the present time, homosexuals cause me the least worry! The best solution still is, today, abstinence (not condoms) or else consistent faithfulness to ones sex partner.

By the way, I'm cautious about those statistics emanating from Cuba. I recall in the old days of the communist Soviet Union, the existence of AIDS in Russia and its satellite states was vehemently denied by the government. In the case of communist China, the explanation was that AIDS was a problem of the West, and didn't exist in China.

Today, of course, we know that the sceptics were correct in what they had been saying regarding those communist propaganda "official" statements.

[Hortical]

How does a mother tell a multiple-sex-partner-each-night don or his gun-toting cronies that they cannot have sex with her daughter?

This was a practice that occurred in middle-ages Europe, and this is tragically happening in Ja.

[Muadib]

There is nothing new under the Sun..

[Bruce]

"Just stay away from men with too many H's in their resume....humping Haitian homosexual hemophiliac heroin addicts...." - George Carlin.

[Muadib]

Haddicts ?

Dawg nyam yuh suppa inna JA.. dem love put H hinna everyting..

[Peter R]

that s/b "hebryting"... -patois police

[Peter R]

Until attitudes in Jamaica and the Caribbean change toward homosexuality then homosexuals will operate under the radar, covering up by marrying a woman, and doing their business behind the communities' back and thus adding to the spread of HIV.

Homosexuals also need to recognize they are a high risk group and clean up their act (pun?)