Nearly 1,000 People In Saint Lucia Living With HIV

There are nearly 1,000 people in Saint Lucia living with HIV, with a decrease in 2023 cases compared to the previous year. The disclosure came from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sharon Belmar-George. “There are currently 992 persons living with HIV in Saint Lucia, of which 57% are male,” the Chief Medical Officer said. Delivering a 2023 health summary, Belmar-George revealed that Saint Lucia diagnosed 26 new HIV cases that year. She explained that the figure represented a 32% decrease from 2022.  Sixty-five percent of the new HIV cases were male. Saint Lucia recorded a spike in Leprosy with eleven new cases – a 120% increase from 2020 to 2023. Belmar-George spoke of a draft national action plan to eliminate the disease. She said the plan includes: An educational public health campaign. Intensive contact tracing in the affected communities. Re-training health care workers towards early detection and diagnosis. Increased testing. More aggressive and consistent treatment.   The Chief Medical Officer’s complete health 2023 health summary addressing other diseases, including COVID-19, appears below: The article Nearly 1,000 People In Saint Lucia Living With HIV is from St. Lucia Times.