Cuba Has Roughly 16,500 AIDS Patients, Government Says

Cuba Has Roughly 16,500 AIDS Patients, Government Says

HAVANA – The number of people in Cuba with HIV/AIDS currently stands at
16,479, according to figures published Monday in the official weekly
Trabajadores.

Last year, some 2.5 million tests to detect the HIV virus were performed
on the island, Public Health Ministry official Maria Isela Lantero told
the publication.

A total of 2,156 new cases were detected, of whom 81.5 percent were men,
and of those about 15 percent had a previous history of sexually
transmitted disease.

Lantero mentioned that of the cases diagnosed in 2013, 40 percent of the
infected people had gone more than three years without having an HIV test.

"That indicates that there are still people to reach and that it's
necessary to foster greater individual responsibility for approaching
the health services or ... in performing tests for vulnerable groups,"
she said.

She said that the prevention efforts are mainly directed at gay men, sex
workers and their customers, women and young people, because they are
considered to have "greater vulnerability" than the general population
for acquiring STDs and HIV/AIDS.

The use of antiretroviral therapy in Cuba has been "successful," Lantero
said, pointing out that of the people who began receiving treatment
starting in 2008, more than 94 percent are still alive.

In Cuba, of the 19,781 people diagnosed as being HIV-positive between
1986 and 2013, 8,037 developed AIDS and 3,302 died.

Source: Latin American Herald Tribune - Cuba Has Roughly 16,500 AIDS
Patients, Government Says -
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=1942994&CategoryId=14510