WILLEMSTAD – The number of new HIV diagnoses in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao has not decreased despite access to testing and treatment. The Aidsfonds reports this to the ANP.
For four years, the hospitals on the islands conducted research in collaboration with the University Medical Center Utrecht.
According to the Aidsfonds, the incidence of HIV is not falling because of the taboo surrounding HIV in the Caribbean. In the rest of the world, however, there has been a decline in HIV diagnoses.
Late
In percentage terms, HIV infections are three to five times more common on the islands than in the Netherlands. In Aruba, mainly gay men are diagnosed with the virus, while on Bonaire and Curaçao it is mostly heterosexual men and women.
In the latter group, HIV is often discovered late. This also applies to the over-50s and immigrants. According to the Aidsfonds, people have little knowledge of HIV and testing for a possible infection is postponed for a long time out of fear and shame.
Significant of the ignorance is that 60 to 70 percent of the people on the Dutch Caribbean islands who received an HIV diagnosis in the past four years were not familiar with the HIV prevention pill PrEP. Moreover, access to the substance on the islands is not well regulated.
Angst
Almost half of the people on the islands who have been diagnosed with HIV do not share this with their loved ones and more than 90 percent do not tell colleagues.
According to the Aidsfonds, this is done out of fear of being excluded or out of shame. More than a quarter of them already experience a sense of exclusion.
“The newly collected figures now not only make healthcare workers think about how to break the taboo and improve testing, but hopefully also policymakers who urgently need to change laws,” said Mark Vermeulen, director of the Aidsfonds.
However, people in the Caribbean who have received an HIV diagnosis are well treated with HIV inhibitors. This suppresses the virus and prevents it from being passed on.
