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2009’s second quarter statistics for HIV and Aids is out and as you might have guessed, the news tonight isn’t good. 106 more persons tested positive for HIV and an additional 20 tested positive for full blown Aids between April and June. In addition, 19 persons died from an Aids related illness. In fact according to the National HIV and Aids Programme, Belize now has more than five thousand persons living with either HIV or full blown Aids. It is a distressing benchmark made worse by the fact that there are more infected persons out there who haven’t been tested. But the news isn’t all bad. Director of the National Aids Programme Dr. Marvin Manzanero says there are some reasons for hope.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director – National Aids Program
“The report is showing that there 106 new infections as documented at Central Medical Lab but for the first six months of this year we only have 169 new cases, new HIV infections which is a little bit lower than the average we’ve had since 2002. So in there, there seems to be a little bit of a tendency towards a decrease in the total number of new infections. As it pertains to the total number of Aids cases, the number is a little bit higher than in previous quarters and unfortunately what that means is that people are coming into contact with the health system with full blown Aids or whenever they are having signs and symptoms of late HIV infection, meaning that people have had it for years, months, and they are showing up in the system.”

See the figures yourself at Ministry of Health.