HIV rates down in DR, still a problem in the region

Santo Domingo.– HIV incidence has decreased by an estimated 25 percent in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica since 2001, while in Haiti it has declined by about 12 percent, the United Nations Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, reveals in its latest report.

According to the document, rates of infection are dropping in the Caribbean, home to the world’s second-highest regional HIV prevalence after sub-Saharan Africa. In its 2011 UNAIDS World AIDS Day report, the entity said that new HIV infections in the Caribbean have dropped by one-third from 2001 levels.

The increase in people living with HIV who receive antiretroviral therapy, has helped reduce the number of annual AIDS-related deaths, and over one-third of adults living with HIV in the region in 2010 were women.

The prevalence of the disease in Latin America is 0.4 percent of the population, on par with 2001’s level. The rate is 0.9 percent in the Caribbean, down from 1 percent in 2001.