SANTO DOMINGO.- The prevalence of the HIV virus in the Dominican Republic fell from 1.0% in 2002 to 0.8% in 2007, according to the United Nations Joint Program’s report "Situation of the AIDS epidemic 2008."
The document, disclosed recently in Mexico, said although many of the disease’s monitoring systems are still inadequate, the last epidemiologic tendencies reveal that the number of contagion has stabilized.
It attributes the reduction to an increasing number of "sex professionals" who are protecting themselves and protecting their clients against the HIV infection, especially in the major tourist and urban centers.
HIV’s main contagion route in the country is heterosexual sex without protection, remunerated or of any other type, the report indicates.
In contrast to other Caribbean nations, only 11% of the HIV infections were through unprotected sexual relations between men in Dominican Republic. This percentage rises to 80% in Cuba; 71% in Dominica; 21% in Guyana and 20% in Trinidad and Tobago.
In Haiti, country with the Caribbean’s highest epidemic rate, the prevalence among attended pregnant prenatal women fell 5.9% in 1996 to 3.1% in 2004 and has remained stable since, according to Public Health and Population Ministry data of 2007.
During 2007 an estinated 230,000 people lived with HIV in the Caribbean region; of those 20,000 became infected and 14,000 of those died from AIDS, according to the United Nations report.
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
The percentages in the other Caribbean nations seem really high, especially Cuba who supposedly has the best education and medical system in the world. One would think for all of that knowlwdge and prevention it would be lower, particularly among man-to-man. Guess they are not as macho as they want you to think.
From: United States, California, San Francisco, Treasure Island
It was not many years ago when THEY meaning the ones with an alternative lifestyle read GAY here were sent away for " re education " and we all know what that means..".Fidel put the U in gulag "...
From: United States
texasshoe, the minister of anti castro propaganda, weighs in again with his half a pesos worth. global policy forum, as early as 2003, documented the revolutionary and successful methodologies cuba had employed to deal with HIV-AIDS. i hardly think they are run by what the august mr shoe likes to call LIBS. yet, in 2003, while the infection rate in the caribbean was over 2%, with over 6% in haiti, Cuba had a rate of 0.05%, then the lowest in the world. global forum characterised cuba's efforts as the first serious attempt to tackle the problem. so, shoe, can you tell us where you got your data? i am a fair guy. if things have changed, and cuba is a hotbed of aids, as you say, then it means that their initiatives have now failed. figures, please!
From: United States, California, San Francisco, Treasure Island
Dread you have convienent amnesia...a large portion of the Boat Lift people were the homosexual community of Cuba..along with the criminals and the insane...Or should I call it a Senior Moment maybe it is the Neocommies just want to rewrite history ...Dread remember" Fidel put the U in gulag "
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
Dread,
"so, shoe, can you tell us where you got your data"
Yes, from the article, I am only commenting on the percentages as presented in the article, no spin, no hype only comments on the article.
From: United States
those figures are percentages of cause of contagion. they do not express the incidence! so, if only two guys in the country have aids, and both are homosexuals, then you have a 100% homosexual transmission rate. that does not have anything to do with how many people have aids! besides, the uptick in aids transmission can be traced to the reliance upon tourism as a source of foreign exchange after the fall of the soviet union. now that cuba has reverted in part to being a playground and whorehouse for north americans and euros, what did you expect to happen?
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
Main Entry: con·ta·gion
Pronunciation: \k?n-'ta-j?n\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin contagion-, contagio, from contingere to have contact with, pollute — more at contingent
Date: 14th century
1 a: a contagious disease b: the transmission of a disease by direct or indirect contact c: a disease-producing agent (as a virus)
Dread,
You are correct if there are 2 homosexuals out of the population you are 100%. How do you get an 80% increase over what already existed if your baseline was 100%. Now, my comments are for discussion purposes only, not to elicit political points of view. I feel that this is a very relevent discussion as HIV / AIDS /SIDA is a worldwide issue.
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
As a note, travel to and from Cuba from the US is still prohibited by law. I would venture to say that most of the Euros (as you said) must be the cause as they can freely travel there, as well as the Mexican community and Canada for that matter.
From: United States
i used 100% baseline to simplify the contagion issue, that is why i used a simple sample of only two people, for academic economy. however, cuba is the standard by which all initiatives against aids is judged. and, i am not accusing citizens of the USA for the increase in aids. there is enough blame to go around , what with europe and the canadians!
From: United States, New York City
tex look over the article again. dread's point is that the rate of infection in Cuba is never mentioned at all.
I've heard for some years now from ppl about high rates of HIV in DR, so I'm surprised to read this. less than 1 in 100 means you really have to make some judgement errors to become infected.
From: Venezuela, Puerto la Cruz, Sector Agua Potable, Pozuelos
You are correct but again like we discussed if there are 2 confirmed cases that is 100% known, they say there has been an 80% increase but provide no baseline for measurement. As far as your second comment, an error in judgement IS all it takes or as they said when I was growing up for 15 minutes of pleasure you get a death sentence.
Written by: Sajomero, 9 Sep 2008 5:44 PM
From: United States
For some odd reason people outside the DR think that it's an AIDS hotbed. It gets boring after a while to hear people regurgitate this propaganda/missinformation without any concrete facts. I visited Cuba on an aid mission to help HIV/AIDS patients and I can say a few things. The system they have in place is fair and pretty innovative for what it is. It is only natural and a short matter of time before infection rates skyrocket in Cuba. Prostitution is out of control, I was shocked to see their attitude about having sex for pay with tourist of both genders. Only time will tell.
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"so, shoe, can you tell us where you got your data"
Yes, from the article, I am only commenting on the percentages as presented in the article, no spin, no hype only comments on the article.
Main Entry: con·ta·gion
Pronunciation: \k?n-'ta-j?n\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin contagion-, contagio, from contingere to have contact with, pollute — more at contingent
Date: 14th century
1 a: a contagious disease b: the transmission of a disease by direct or indirect contact c: a disease-producing agent (as a virus)
Dread,
You are correct if there are 2 homosexuals out of the population you are 100%. How do you get an 80% increase over what already existed if your baseline was 100%. Now, my comments are for discussion purposes only, not to elicit political points of view. I feel that this is a very relevent discussion as HIV / AIDS /SIDA is a worldwide issue.
I've heard for some years now from ppl about high rates of HIV in DR, so I'm surprised to read this. less than 1 in 100 means you really have to make some judgement errors to become infected.