From January 2023 until the end of September, 15 persons have died as a result of AIDS-related illnesses in Saint Lucia.
That’s according to Senior Medical Officer Dr. Gail Gajadhar in a message to mark World AIDS Day.
“In 2023, the early 21st century, no one should be dying as a result of AIDS in Saint Lucia,” Gajadhar asserted.
The senior Health Ministry official explained that deaths from AIDS-related illnesses occur due to late-stage diagnosis or people not accepting that they have HIV.
However, Gajadhar observed that Saint Lucia had transitioned from not having any medication to managing HIV to anti-retroviral therapy, that is, HIV treatment, available and free of cost to the patient.
In addition, she disclosed that a 15-minute screening test could determine whether an individual may have HIV.
Her complete World Aids Day message appears below:
Everything was COVID now you all are back with hiv
Smh @ troubling ..today is World AIDs day. Hence this article which encourages early screening for detection and management
@Guuy, just simple minds stating simple things.
@Troubling … HIV also affects babies and women, and is also transmitted from tainted blood transfusions. Be informed, be aware!!
Always wondered if all these younger deaths are not due to this? In st Lucia every body fop everybody. Small island. Things spread fast among small populations. And that’s the 15 they know of. Once young populations dying like they did in Africa at some point, they better pay closer attention to this. Carnival good time, everybody sleeping with everyone else. When one have it, it passing to so many . Some also infect deliberately too. they know they have it, yet they sleeping around. If they try it in the big countries, jail time for them. It’s easy to sequence the virus genetically to know if someone deliberately infect another. They have the technology and jail time.
@Sharpy you are correct ….in St. Lucia they sleep around with Tom, Dick and Hary not knowing the HIV status of those they are sleeping around with. Married men, single men, married women, single women, bi sexual individuals etc etc etc you name it.
— it’s a sick and deadly game …