Bridgetown.
Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Senator Irene Sandiford- Garner, has painted a gloomy picure on the HIV/AIDS situation in Barbados.
Speaking in the Senate Chambers, Sandiford-Garner said current data showed that a large proportion of people infected with the virus had contracted it in early adulthood, indicating that risky behaviour was beginning in the teenage years.
Sandiford-Garner told the Senate there are presently 2000 people know to be living with HIV in Barbados, with women of child-bearing age representing 50 percent of the cases diagnosed in 2010.
The Senator called for a change in the approach to disseminating public education on the disease, charging that HIV/AIDs public education messages were no longer resonating with Barbadians.
She expressed concern about the response of adolescents between the age ten and 29 and said while high levels of awareness, satisfactory treatment and care of HIV positive people had been achieved through the National HIV Programme.
The National HIV Commission had not been as successful in their effort to made the public aware of the behaviour change required to prevent the spreading of the disease. ,
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