By Dale McNish,
Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
ALTHOUGH THE smallest parish, Hanover is ranked third among the parishes with the highest number of HIV/AIDS cases.
A recent National HIV/AIDS survey which shows Hanover in the number three position, has health workers in the parish worried that there is hardly anything to prevent the situation from getting worse.
Hanover's rising rate is frightening, taking into consideration its population of over 70,000, falling behind St. James, Kingston and St. Andrew, as the two leading parishes with AIDS cases.
"I see an increase for a few years to come... we have a pool of persons who have had sex with HIV infected persons which has not yet taken its toll," said Stefan Miller, contact investigator at the Hanover Health Department.
The high-risk areas in the parish have been identified as Lucea, Green Island, Chester Castle, Hopewell and Sandy Bay.
The parish occupied the third position three years ago but slipped to the fifth and sixth positions in 1999, since September last year it has been holding firm at the third position. According to Mr. Miller, his department has seen a decline in other sexual transmitted diseases (STDs) such as syphilis and gonorrhoea.
Since 1985 when the first case was reported to April this year, 119 persons in the parish have been infected with the disease, over 80 per cent of those persons have since died.
Over a 16-year period, the number of HIV cases reported in the parish stand at 109.
The majority of full-blown AIDS cases falls within the 30-39 age group which recorded 44, the 40-49 age group recorded 19 (all males), the 50-59 age group has 17, 60 and over recorded 8 (six of which are females), the age group 20-29 recorded 23. They were two reported cases for the 15-19 age group (females only), the age group 10-14 had none, and one male topped the 3-9 age group and five within the 1 to 2 age groups.
Describing the statistics for the 60 and over age group as "unusual," Mr. Miller said the tendency of older women to establish relationship with younger men could be the major factor why the females are featured prominently in this category.
As part of its public education campaign, the Hanover Aids Support convenes a public forum once per month in communities across the parish, volunteers have been trained in STD interaction and there are plans to establish a condom promotion outlet in high-risk areas.
While the health department is committed to providing residents with condoms as part of its preventative measures, Mr. Miller foresees a discontinuation of this benevolence due to budgetary constraints faced by the Ministry of Health.
"Persons will soon have to buy their supply (of condoms), because what we have at the health department will soon dry up... free condoms will soon be a thing of the past," he said.
