Chief of Epidemiology and AIDS in the Ministry of Health and Environment, Dr Peter Figueroa, says although the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) continues to rise, the death rate from these infections, particularly HIV/AIDS, has been declining.

This, he said, was due to the success of the Ministry's national AIDS/STI programme.

Dr Figueroa, who was speaking at the International Conference on Adult Education at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Monday, said it is estimated that there are 25,000 to 27,000 people living with HIV in Jamaica, and that as many as 12,000 are not aware that they are living with the virus.

Expand testing

He urged all sexually active persons to get an HIV/AIDS test done in order to adequately tackle the epidemic.

"We need to expand testing. Everyone needs to get tested once you are sexually active, and we're trying to encourage that," he said.

"We estimated adult HIV prevalence of 1.5 per cent for the last 10 years. The prevalence of HIV among pregnant women in public clinics has remained stable at 1.5 per cent. It means that we have been able to put some hold on the spread, but it is not yet adequately going down, but what is encouraging there is that the death rate has come down significantly, and that is due to our antiretroviral treatment programme," Dr Figueroa explained.

He said, however, that the prevalence among those who are most at risk, like homosexuals, is very high and is estimated at 25 per cent. Similarly, among female sex workers, surveys show that the rates are significantly high.