PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 08 2016 – The UNAIDS country team in Haiti says the number of HIV-positive people here receiving medical treatment has more than doubled from 2010 to 2015 (more than 82,500 to date). Moreover, new infections have decreased by more than 27 percent since 2004 and deaths related to this disease by 49 percent since 2008.
Nevertheless, 150,961 people still live with HIV / AIDS in Haiti, according to official records, and the prevalence among girls aged 15 to 24 is three times higher than for boys of the same age.
Haiti is a priority country for accelerating the phase-out of HIV by 2030. By 2016, the rate of HIV transmission from mothers to their babies at six weeks of life has increased to 4.23 percent. It was more than 12 percent in 2010. Despite these advances, 7,500 HIV-positive people die each year in Haiti (nearly 20 people every day).
The prevalence rate among adults aged 15-49 years is 2.2 percent (1.7 percent for men and 2.7 percent for women), but it is 12.9 percent for men who have sex with men and 8.7 percent among prostitutes of both genders.
It should be recalled that the spread of HIV in Haiti is linked to multiple factors such as poverty, low educational attainment, intergenerational intercourse, gender inequalities and limited access to HIV prevention and treatment services.
Sensitization actions such as screening and non-discrimination are part of the overall national strategy for the elimination of AIDS, which also includes making treatment available to people with AIDS.
