UN Foundation/Wire Alert

February, 1 2000

The Research Institute for the Study of the Caribbean Diaspora is organizing a two-day conference on HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean region.

According to a document from the Guyanan Information Ministry, the Caribbean has the second highest HIV-infection rate in the world, after sub-Saharan Africa. Of some 36 million people in the Caribbean, approximately 360,000 are infected with the virus. AIDS cases in the region have been steadily increasing since 1982, when the first case was identified.

According to Trinidad's Caribbean Epidemiology Center, the incidence rate increased by 13.5% in 1992, 19.2% in 1994 and 22.5% in 1995. Heterosexual transmission is the major path for the disease, responsible for more than 75% of all cases. About 35% of HIV-positive adults in the Caribbean are women, and the infection rate among pregnant women is increasing annually.

Currently, the Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana and Jamaica have the largest number of AIDS cases in the region. In Guyana, the Genito Urinary Medicine clinic said one-third of the HIV cases it identified in the first quarter of 1999 involved young people. AIDS and AIDS-related diseases are also an increasing cause of death for men and women aged 20 to 44 (Guyana Chronicle, 31 Jan).