The original article can be found in: Amandala By Adele Ramos
HIV (the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus) has become “a concentrated epidemic” within the male homosexual community—this according to data that was published inside the TB, HIV/AIDS & other STIs Programme Report, released today by the Ministry of Health, which cites a Behavioral Surveillance Survey of 2012 for two at-risk populations: “female sex workers” and “men who have sex with other men.”
Whereas the HIV prevalence rate among prostitutes was documented at 0.91%, or less than 1 in 100 persons, the prevalence rate reported for male homosexuals was 13.85%, or roughly 14 for every 100 persons from that group.
“HIV is a concentrated epidemic in the ‘men who have sex with men’ group,” the report said, adding that “…the majority of those being diagnosed in 2012 were already showing up with advanced HIV infection.”
The report also highlights the increasing number of males that are affected, with a widening of the gap when compared to the female population.
“Males are also dying more as a result of HIV (still one of the leading causes of deaths in males over the last 4 years), so it has become imperative that at all sectors, males are engaged more in any and at all levels of health services being offered,” the report said.
The 2012 data show “the first increase in the last 4 years, as the tendency had been to show decreasing numbers of new HIV infections.” (See graph showing HIV data since 1986.)
For 2012, 249 new HIV cases were documented—a 10% increase over 2011—and of those 148 (60%) were males and 101 were females. The Belize District reported the highest number of new infections.
Along the same vein, roughly 65% of all deaths from HIV in 2012 were among males – 57 of 88 deaths reported.
The report said the positivity rate of HIV infections “…is almost three times as high in males as that calculated for females”—this notwithstanding the fact that females got tested almost twice as many times as males, due to routine pregnancy check-ups.
Of the nearly 7,000 tests done for women during pregnancy, 38 yielded positive results. A total of 44 babies were delivered to HIV-positive women, and 2 of them were reported to have transmitted the virus to their babies.
For the decade ending 2010, health reports signaled what had been described as a “feminization” of HIV; however, this new health report indicates that this is no longer the case, as consistently males are accounting for a larger number of HIV-positive cases than females.
