Safe Sex Message Not Being Swallowed

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What Ails You

Friday, 05 August 2011 02:30

By Colin Sampson

Antigua St John's - HIV/AIDS Counselor/Educator Everton Piggott, during a stint on The Colin Sampson Show on Thursday, painted a stark picture of the landscape in Antigua & Barbuda as it relates to infection rates.

Piggott gave two perspectives on the trends. By June 2011, there were 906 reported cases of HIV infection in Antigua & Barbuda. Of this number, 463 were adult males; 407 adult females; 10 minor males; 15 minor females; and 11 whose sexuality was unknown at the time records were collated.

Annual reports of new infections have varied with the years. In 2007, for example, 66 new cases were recorded. The following year, the number of new infections reported rose to 88, only to fall back to as “low” as 46 in 2009. In 2010, however, newly recorded cases shot up to 70. The number of known new HIV infections stood at 20 at the end of July 2011.

The largest single infected age group, those 15 to 34, accounted for 75 percent of newly reported cases of HIV infection for 2011. The AIDS Secretariat regards this statistic as ominous if not downright alarming. It suggested that the message of safe sex and responsible sexual lifestyles is not penetrating this most sexually and economically active segment of the population.

Truly alarming, though, is a report issued by AIDS Clinical Care Co-ordinator Dr Sir Prince Ramsey. Dr Ramsey’s findings are that of all those receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS infections, 86 percent are non-nationals, while 14 percent are so-called “native-born”.

Observing that care and medication are supplied freely across the OECS, Piggott suggested that this phenomenon revealed a reluctance among nationals to seek help when confronted with HIV. The counselor was, however, unable to determine whether this aversion springs from a stigma, or some other social reason.

The HIV/AIDS counselor/educator went to pains to stress that a diagnosis of HIV infection is no longer a death sentence. He said with proper treatment and a lifelong commitment to a regime, people can live long, active, and fruitful lives after contracting HIV. Additionally, experience and research have shown that acts of affection and intimacy such as hugging and kissing on the cheek, and sharing meals and food containers, pose no threat to health.

The survival time for the retrovirus outside the body is so short that avoidance of bodily secretions is all that is required to ward off infection. In the case of more intimately invasive maneuvers such as “tongue” kissing, however, it should be remembered that wounds, cuts, or sores in the mouth pose a risk of passing on or contracting the virus. So too, should the secretions of open sores on the body be avoided.

The AIDS Secretariat acknowledges and warns that there are people who, having passed through the early stages of acceptance and accommodation to the disease, graduate to a destructive state where they determine to themselves that they are “not going down alone”. The greater danger though, in the eyes of the Secretariat, is posed by those who, in blissful ignorance of their positive HIV status, continue to engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners. Piggott intimated that there are many more people in this latter category than we might care to guess.


In the end, said Piggott, only continued intensive public education, coupled with an individual will to pursue a sexually healthy lifestyle, will contain the spread of the disease. These efforts will continue, thanks to the AIDS Secretariat, the government, NGOs, and voluntary organisations. The final solution, however, lies in the hands of individuals and the choices we make.

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