Published: Wednesday | December 2, 2009
Treatment for more than half of the estimated 14,000 Jamaicans with HIV who require intervention is currently unavail-able, says director of the National HIV/STI Programme, Dr Kevin Harvey.
"The major gap has come about because we have revised the time at which we start treating people, so we are now treating people earlier, hence, more people need treatment," Harvey explained. He also noted that about 6,500 people were currently being treated for HIV islandwide.
In the past, said Harvey, those infected with the virus were treated when their CD4 count fell to 200, or when they developed AIDS. (CD4 are receptor cells which are attacked by HIV. The virus uses them to make copies of itself, thereby disabling the immune system.) Now the treatment begins when their CD4 count hits 350, and before they develop full-blown AIDS.
Harvey says a person who is not infected with HIV has a CD4 count of about 800 cells per microlitre of blood, but when the virus destroys the cells and the CD4 counts reaches 200, the person is considered to have contracted AIDS. Antiretroviral treatment is then administered.
"You can imagine, there will be more people at 350 than there would have been that progressed to 200," said Harvey.
Meanwhile, information from the health ministry's National HIV/STI Programme, HIV/AIDS Epidemic Update, shows that during January to June, 2008, a total of 373 AIDS cases were reported in the island, an increase over the 324 that were reported for the same period in 2007.
Data show that from 1982 to June 2008, there have been 12,893 AIDS deaths in the island - 7,425 males and 5,468 females.
The statistics suggest Jamaica's hopes of achieving goal six of the Millennium Development Goals, which speaks to combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, could be in danger. Targets for this goal include halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. There is also a mandate for universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it.
Commenting further on the lack of medication, Harvey said additional funding would have to be sought from donor agencies and other countries to bridge the gap.