Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
JUNIOR DOWIE, Staff Photographer
Bridget Henry, acting branch manager at the Victoria Mutual Building Society in New Kingston, presents a cheque for $126,000 to Marvin Gunter, national director for HIV and Youth at the Jamaica Red Cross, to assit with the Woman 2000 march, which will be held on December 1 to mark World AIDS day. The presentation was made at the launch of World AIDS day activities at the Courtleigh Hotel in New Kingston yesterday.
THERE WAS a 12 per cent increase in reported new AIDS cases in the first six months of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003, according to the Ministry of Health.
Dr. Yitades Gebre, executive director of the National HIV/STI Control Project, made the disclosure during the launch of World AIDS day activities at the Courtleigh Hotel yesterday.
578 NEWLY REPORTED CASES
Dr. Gebre disclosed that in the first six months of 2004, there were 578 newly reported AIDS cases compared to 516 for the previous year. Of these 578 newly reported cases, there were 334 males and 244 females.
Further analysis showed that of this figure, there were 31 adolescent girls and boys between the ages 15 to 24 years. The data also showed that the number of adolescent girls in this group was three times higher than boys of the same age group.
The ministry also reported that the rate of new HIV infection in women in the age group 20-24 years was increasing steadily more than men in the same age group.
ADOLESCENT FEMALES
Meanwhile, the ministry's data on the HIV/AIDS epidemic update also revealed that adolescent females in the age group 10-19 years were three times higher at risk of HIV infection than boys of the same age group.
It attributed this to social factors whereby young girls were having sexual relations with HIV infected older men. On the average, the ministry noted that 50 per cent of young women reported their sexual partner to be 5 to 10 years older than they are.
HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) were also the second leading cause of death for both men and women in the age group 30 to 34 years in Jamaica, according to the
ministry's report. The data also showed that in 2004, every week 11 persons died of AIDS in Jamaica.
