GROWING HIV/AIDS infection rates and the pain caused by discrimination and stigma locally have prompted several national and media personalities, as well as health officials, to form a Media Alliance to reduce the stigma against HIV positive persons and the prevention of further infection. The media alliance and a media campaign - 'Living Positive' - were launched yesterday at the Knutsford Court Hotel, Ruthven Road, New Kingston. The campaign will involve media personalities, media managers, business representatives and entertainers in various activities/advertisements aimed at reducing the stigma. "It is stigma which leads people to deny rights and services to persons infected and affected," said Dr. Barry Wint, the Ministry of Health's Chief Medical Officer, while reading a message from John Junor, Minister of Health. CHILDREN HARD-HIT New figures released by Dr. Peter Figueroa, the Ministry's Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS, showed that the rate of infection continued to grow. A total of 989 Jamaicans contracted HIV/AIDS in 2002, compared to 939 persons in 2001 and 903 in 2000. Among the new cases, 580 were males and 409 females. Among those hardest hit were children, with 81 of them developing AIDS, bringing the number of children with AIDS since the start of the epidemic to 559. The number of persons reported with the illness since 1982, he said, now total 7,027 and about 63 per cent of them have died. A worrying trend also emerged as the 2002 data showed that there were more housewives, among other people, reported with HIV/AIDS than prostitutes and exotic dancers, persons traditionally thought by many Jamaicans to be more at risk based on the nature of their professions. While officials state that "commercial sex workers", intravenous drug users and those with multiple sexual partners are more at risk of being infected, they again stressed yesterday that "persons with AIDS in Jamaica come from all social classes, occupations and walks of life ...(so) anyone, who is sexually active is at risk of being HIV-infected unless a condom is used every time they have sex," Dr. Figueroa added. MARRIAGES NOT AS SAFE ANYMORE According to statistics from the Jamaica AIDS Report, from January 2002 to December 2002, 165 housewives reported having AIDS compared to 159 prostitutes/dancers. Health officials have long worried that persons in what they believe are monogamous relationships tend to think they are safe and so condom usage tends to be non-existent or sporadic. They have also been concerned at the painful treatment meted out to HIV-positive persons when others become aware of their status. The Alliance urges media managers and media practitioners, in their role as influentials, to promote HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) education within the private sector, the entertainment fraternity and other select groups and to work with the mass media to make people more aware of the need to create a supportive environment for persons living with HIV/AIDS.