Ian Allen/Staff Photographer - Dr. Robert Gallo makes a presentation during yesterday's launch of the American Chiefs of Mission Conference on HIV/AIDS, at the Terra Nova Hotel, New Kingston.

ALTHOUGH THE Caribbean has the second-highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in the world, the region's fight against the disease continues to be slow.

Dr. Peter Figueroa, chief of epidemiology and AIDS at the Ministry of Health, made this observation yesterday at the launch of the American Chiefs of Mission Conference on HIV/AIDS, at the Terra Nova Hotel, New Kingston.

"Despite encouraging signs, our programmes are fragmented and uncoordinated. There is still concern among high-risk persons," Dr. Figueroa said.

According to statistics from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), approximately 250,000 persons in the Caribbean are living with HIV/AIDS, most of them in Guyana and Haiti.

Dr. Figueroa said ignorance about the disease persists, which leaves persons with the disease open to discrimination. He added that unsafe sex between workers in the tourist industry and many of the 20 million tourists who visit the Caribbean annually is another problem for regional health officials.

USAID has allocated over US$30 million to Caribbean HIV/AIDS programmes since it first got involved with assistance in the late 1980s. Yet, the spread of the disease remains prevalent with 19,000 deaths recorded in 2006.

The USAID reports that Guyana, Haiti, Suriname, Barbados, The Bahamas and Jamaica have the largest number of HIV/AIDS victims. This has helped make the Caribbean second only to sub-Saharan Africa in prevalence rate.

There are more than 23,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica, according to the Ministry of Health.

Cuba has region's lowest rate

Ironically, Cuba has the region's lowest prevalence rate at 0.1 per cent. That country is not a USAID beneficiary.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who also spoke at the opening, urged schools and parents to be proactive in educating Jamaican youth about HIV/AIDS.

"We have to do away with this prudish notion that sexual awareness is something we must hide from our children. We have got to start talking to our children from an early age," he said.

Dr. Robert Gallo, who co-discovered the first HIV/AIDS case in 1981, also spoke at the launch. So, too, did Brenda LaGrange Johnson, the United States Ambassador to Jamaica.

The conference, the sixth annual, is attended by nine American Chiefs of Mission in the Caribbean.