World AIDS Day is being celebrated today, and since 1988, the day has always been set aside for the purposes of raising funds, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice and educating the public about the deadly disease.
But just as important, the day is used for reminding people that HIV has not gone away, and there's still much left to be done.
The vast majority of people living with HIV and AIDS come from low and middle income countries such as Belize, but the disease remains a threat to men women and children on all continents.
Worldwide, there's been a significant decline in the estimated number of AIDS related deaths over the last five years. In Belize, health officials and those dedicated to fighting the deadly disease were being cautiously optimistic about the country's declining rate of infection, at a press conference held today at ITVET.
Dr. Martin Cuellar, Executive Director of the National Aids Commission
"We are very happy to report this year that we had some continued progress which started over three years ago. We continue to see a decreased in the number of new infections and this tells us that the combined initiatives that we've been implementing with all of our partners in preventing are starting to take hold and starting to create a positive effect."
Jim McFadzean
"As we celebrate World Aids Day there are still this call for more education and awareness. Why so?"
Dr. Martin Cuellar
"It's very important that though we are seeing a decrease in the number of new infections that we don't run away with the misconception that the problem is over or that we have nothing to be concern about and so it is important that we take our approach to prevention to a new level and I think the new level that we need to talk about in Belize is a more personal one. we are asking Belizeans to each look into their own lives, asses the level of risk in their sexual behavior and to develop what we call a personal protection plan and if each individual starts doing that and then they seek motivation to stick to those plans within their smaller circles within families, within friends we will see the net effect rippling across our society, our communities and the around the country and it is this kind of combine personal initiative that would allow us to continue the new infections going down and allow us to truly take full control of HIV. "
According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 34 million people living with HIV. During 2010 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus, including an estimated 390,000 children. In Belize an estimated 5 Thousand people are living with HIV.
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