The AIDS epidemic may rarely grab international headlines these days but a local official told Observer that the virus is still of concern in Antigua and Barbuda.
“HIV continues to be a concern for the national AIDS programme in the ministry of health,” said programme manager at the AIDS secretariat, Delcora Williams.
“We are seeing a lot of young persons now testing positive for HIV. So we continue to reach out to schools, we continue to reach out to universities, we continue to reach out to everybody, giving them the opportunity to get to know their HIV status.
“A lot of persons are getting tested now, but there’s also a lot of persons starting new relationships or continuing in their relationships, but are not getting tested, having unprotected sex with somebody not knowing their HIV status, engaging in risky sex, such as consorting with a man who has sex with other men.”
She explained that people who buy and sell sex, while not using condoms, are also contributing to the spread of the infection.
Williams suggests that if a person is engaging in sexual intercourse, it doesn’t matter what age the participants are, how many there are, or how frequently it happens, everyone involved should get tested and openly share their results, even if married.
She advises that folks should physically see the prospective sexual partner’s latest test results, as opposed to simply believing someone who claims they know their status to be negative.
“Right now at the national programme we offer three rapid tests, which are HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B, and they are all free of cost. The only thing is that since Covid, you have to make an appointment from Monday to Thursday, from 8:30am to 3pm, and you can get that free test with an appointment,” she said.
She explained that there are three types of medications – ARV, PrEP, and PEP – that are available in Antigua and Barbuda for various circumstances.
“ARV, we give to anybody that tests positive, free of cost. You go on treatment for life because we do not want you to ever get sick. PrEP is a medication that can be used for pre-exposure one to two days before exposure. It’s for when you know you’re going to be engaged in risky sexual behavior.
“PEP is post-exposure prophylaxis, which is something that happens after a sexual engagement. You only have 72 hours, maximum, to get on PEP because you have to give the medication time to do its work before the virus lashes on to a healthy cell,” Williams said.
She explained that AIDS will always be a concern for the ministry even if it’s just one percent of the population testing positive, and notwithstanding the fact that there have been years where we’ve seen as little as 32 cases, and as many as 55.
“We want to ensure that the numbers keep going down. We peaked in 2008 with 88 persons. Since that time, we have not gone up to those numbers. So we continue to work by making sure people have information so that they can make informed choices when it comes to having unprotected sex.
“Unprotected sex with an infected person contributes the most to antigen testing,” she added.
