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Bahamas: Sex, HIV-AIDS And Genuine Reform In A Tourism-driven Culture
Related to country: Bahamas

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HIV-AIDS Surely Matters:
Bahama Journal Editorial -
Nassau, Bahamas:


In a matter of days Christmas will be here.

In a matter of days Christmas will be gone. In a sense, this is emblematic of life itself, a process suffused with expectation, joy and sad regret.

Today we make this point as we reflect on some of the harsher realities that often occur in times like these.

One of these realities has to do with the fact that there are very many Bahamians who routinely profane this most holy season, using it as an occasion for ribald excess and pure bacchanal.

Compounding the matter is the fact that this Christmas season will also provide occasion for unlimited alcohol consumption, leaving some of our people sick or dead.

In other instances, some other Bahamians will find themselves victimized by some depraved sexual predator or the other.

What we are suggesting is that things have gotten so much out of whack in a supposedly modern Bahamas that people are describing their destruction as ‘fun’.

The fact of the matter is that there is neither fun nor enjoyment in the sad statistics that relate to the incidence and impact of HIV-AIDS in The Bahamas and in the wider region.

There is neither fun nor enjoyment in statistics that show that most of the young people who recently ‘strutted their stuff’ on Bay Street – in the guise as juniour junkanoos – are youth who are performing at the D+ level in their academic work.

Something must be wrong with this picture!

Once we return to the real world, we note information that should be cause for concern to all right-thinking Bahamians as they get set for the arrival of the Prince of Peace.

We can report that The Ministry of Health has revealed that between August 1985 and 31st. March 2007; 10,928 HIV cases were reported in The Bahamas.

The number of people living with HIV/AIDS up to the first quarter of the year was at 7,080. Of this figure 5,373 people had the virus while the remaining 1,707 had developed AIDS.

Bear in mind that adolescents and young people are the fastest-growing group of new HIV infections. Cumulative figures from August 1985 to March of this year showed that females between the ages of 10 and 30 outnumbered males two to one in new HIV infections.

Of note too is the fact that in the 10 to 14 age group, 23 females were infected compared to 10 males. And in the 15 to 19 group, 183 females were infected, compared to 75 males.

Some other young people – mired in carnality and ignorance – will be infected with this or that sexually transmitted disease, their young lives blighted and their future compromised.

A similar thing is happening in the wider region.

We now know that at the end of 2007, an estimated 230,000 people were living with HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean. Some 17,000 people were newly infected during 2007, and there were 11,000 deaths due to AIDS.

We also know that in three of the larger countries in this region – The Bahamas, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago – more than 2% of the adult population is living with HIV. Higher prevalence rates are found only in sub-Saharan Africa, making the Caribbean the second-most affected region in the world. More than half of adults living with the virus are women.

AIDS is now one of the leading causes of death in some of these countries, with Haiti being the worst affected. An estimated 16,000 lives are lost each year to AIDS in Haiti, and tens of thousands of children have been orphaned by the epidemic.

Of note too is the fact that the predominant route of HIV transmission in the Caribbean is heterosexual contact. Much of this transmission is associated with commercial sex, but the virus is also spreading in the general population, especially in Haiti.

We are told that cultural and behavioural patterns (such as early initiation of sexual acts, and taboos related to sex and sexuality), gender inequalities, lack of confidentiality, stigmatization and economic need are some of the factors influencing vulnerability to HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean.

Haiti's prevalence levels have been very high since the late 1980s (the estimated rate in 2005 was 3.8%). With very low condom use among young people, and about 60% of the population under 24, much scope exists for renewed growth in Haiti's mainly heterosexually-transmitted epidemic.

Interestingly, on the other side of Hispaniola Island, in the Dominican Republic, previously high prevalence has declined due to effective prevention efforts that encouraged people to reduce their number of sexual partners and increase condom use.

While all of this is well and good, there is that other aspect of the matter that needs and begs for attention; that being the need for real reform in a tourism-drenched culture where sex and its public display – real and simulated – are tolerated, emulated and advertised.

17 December 2007

December 17, 2007 | 5:44 PM Comments  0 comments

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