Sexually active Jamaicans urged to get tested for HIV

Wednesday,  January 18, 2006

Dr Peter Figueroa, Chief of Epidemiology and HIV/AIDS in the Ministry of Health, has called on more sexually active Jamaicans to get tested for HIV.

He noted that the estimated 140,000 tests administered last year were not enough. “Let’s say that there are 1.2 million adults in Jamaica and one million are sexually active and you are just doing 140,000 tests, we have got to do better than that,” he said.

Dr Figueroa, who was speaking at a press briefing held recently at the Courtleigh Hotel in Kingston, to give details of the visit by a high level delegation from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GTFAM), noted that with reports indicating that approximately 15,000 of the 22,000 persons estimated to be living with HIV in Jamaica were not aware of their status, it was important that sexually active persons get tested. “It is better to know than not to know,” he pointed out.
The Epidemiology Chief further pointed out, that while surveys have indicated that as many as 30 per cent of adults have had a HIV test at some point