HIV/AIDS and sexual education are huge issues for me. i`m not HIV positive, but i could have been. my sexual practices as a young man can be summed up in a word; careless. but i was lucky, so now i get tested twice a year for the gamut, it`s pricey but it`s worth my piece of mind. up until the early 90s i was blissfully unaware, then i read that Color`s magazine AIDS issue and got a sobering wake up call. i think people need to get out of the “it can`t happen to me mindset”
the figures are staggering.
Caribbean
“Three Caribbean countries have national HIV prevalence rates of at least 3%: the Bahamas, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. Around 430 000 people in the region are living with HIV.The Caribbean epidemic is mainly heterosexual, and in many places it is concentrated among sex workers. But it is also spreading in the general population. The worst-affected country is Haiti where national prevalence is around 5.6%, the highest outside Africa.”
High-income countries
An estimated 1.6 million people are living with HIV in these countries. Unlike the situation in other regions, the great majority of people living with HIV in high-income countries who need antiretroviral therapy have access to it, so they are staying healthy and surviving longer than infected people elsewhere. The report finds that infections are on the rise in the United States and Western Europe. In the US, an estimated 950 000 people are living with HIV – up from 900 000 in 2001. Half of all new infections in recent years have been among African Americans. In Western Europe, 580 000 people are living with HIV compared to 540 000 in 2001.
