By: Karen ‘Lioness’ Allen
Freelance Journalist
Government officials have expressed concern for Montserrat’s small population and the impact that HIV/AIDS could have on the country.
At the close of 2008, His Excellency, Mr. Peter Waterworth, Governor of Montserrat, l rate of 0.6%, and between 1985 and 2007, there were 35 reported cases of HIV/AID and 3 associated deaths.
Until Montserrat’s Governor revealed this information in his World AIDS Day speech for December 1, 2008, an official statistical position for HIV/AIDS on Montserrat could not be obtained.
Along with the governor, representatives of the Ministry of Health have demonstrated concern that reported cases of HIV/AIDS in the country do not reflect an accurate picture.
Available statistics indicate that only about 1 in 10 cases of HIV/AID infections are reported in Montserrat. In fact, CAREC estimates that there are about 30 people living with HIV/AIDS in Montserrat.
In Mr. Waterworth’s speech on World AIDS Day 2008, he said, “Sometimes, the scale of AIDS is so overwhelming that the numbers are beyond understanding. For example, in Malawi, 14% of adults are HIV positive and AIDS have orphaned more than one million children. So, let’s bring it down to a human scale by looking at the case of Marie Day Silva, a nanny in the USA who is from Malawi. She lost 14 of her family including her father and two brothers to the disease. That’s what a plaque really means….”
With an official workforce of 2,593, Montserrat faces grave concerns regarding the history of uneven spread of HIV/AIDS. As described by His Excellency, “…. Any attack on this small productive and reproductive group has far reaching negative implications for economic growth, social stability, and nationhood. AIDS erodes productivity, consumes savings, increases expenditure and reduces income. With every new case the negative impact worsens.”
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