In 2008 an estimated 20,000 people in the Caribbean became infected with HIV, and around 12,000 died of AIDS. After sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean has a higher HIV prevalence than any other area of the world, with 1.0% of the adult population infected.1
An overview of AIDS in the Caribbean
Due largely to their close geographic locations, the Caribbean is usually grouped with Latin America in discussions about HIV and AIDS, but the epidemics in these regions are very different. Even within the Caribbean, each country faces a unique situation. The diversity of the region – which is apparent in terms of politics, languages spoken, geographic location and wealth – is reflected in the significantly different ways that countries are affected.
At one extreme, the Bahamas has the highest HIV prevalence in the entire western hemisphere (3%); at the other, Cuba has one of the lowest (0.1%). Trinidad and Tobago (1.5%) and Jamaica (1.6%) are heavily affected, while Puerto Rico is the only Caribbean country apart from Cuba where it is thought that less than 1% of the population is living with HIV.
2 Other factors, such as AIDS mortality rates and transmission patterns, also vary across countries and areas. See our Caribbean statistics page for more data.
Before Haiti's devastating earthquake in January 2010, an estimated 2.2 percent of the population were living with HIV. Haiti's AIDS epidemic is one of the most severe in the Caribbean. Before the earthquake an estimated 126,800 people under the age of 49 were living with the virus, which included 6,800 children; and an estimated 19,000 people were receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Since the earthquake, thousands of people will still be in need of ARVs, and the priority for AIDS organisations is to get the medication to those in need. It is also critical that HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services are resumed.
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“Haiti's AIDS epidemic is one of the most severe in the Caribbean”