KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jul 14 2015 – Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson is blaming Jamaica’s increase in HIV infections to men who have sex with both men and women.
He says there has been a near 40 percent increase in new HIV infections in 2012.
Dr. Ferguson said that although the National HIV/STI Programme had made significant strides in achieving a decline in new infections and is on track to halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, it continues to face challenges with respect to the prevalence rate among vulnerable groups.
“While we have a prevalence rate of 1.8 percent among the general population, female sex workers have a prevalence of 4.2 percent, young men under 25 years who have sex with men are at 24.3 percent as at 2013, and adult men who have sex with men (MSM) have a prevalence rate of 32 percent.
“In addition, men who have sex with men and their female partners accounted for almost 40 percent of new infections in 2012,” Dr. Ferguson said, adding “I want to further note that MSM who reported being involved in sex work, reported an HIV prevalence of 41 percent, transgender women 45 percent, and transgender populations in sex work reaching as high as 56 percent”.
He said that the prevalence rates among these groups were “way too high” and that much of the efforts must be concentrated on these vulnerable groups.
The Health Minister said that there is the ever present challenge of implementing mechanisms to effectively deal with the issue of stigma and discrimination.
The approved funds for the National HIV/STI Programme include US$14.9 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, to be used from January 2016 to December 2018; US$5 million from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDs Relief (PEPFAR)/United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for the 2015/2016 financial year, and increased budgetary allocation from the Jamaican Government.
Dr. Ferguson said that the funds would facilitate support geared at reaching those most at risk of becoming HIV infected, as well as those who are already infected through the provision of treatment, care and support services.
Dr Ferguson said the PEPFAR grant has already been approved and that they are now in the final stages of completing the ministry’s work plan, while a mission from the Global Fund is now in the island working through funding requirements and guidelines with stakeholders to develop an integrated plan. (CMC)
