Venezuela HIV/AIDS Infection Seen 3 Times Higher Than Diagnosed Cases

The incidence of infection with the HIV/AIDS virus in Venezuela may be at least three times as high as the number of diagnosed cases.


By Jeremy Morgan
Latin American Herald Tribune staff

CARACAS -- The incidence of infection with the HIV/AIDS virus in Venezuela may be at least three times as high as the number of diagnosed cases, according to a non-government organization which warned that insufficient studies had been carried out to establish with any accuracy just how many people in the country might have the disease.

Using data from 2003 and making the appropriate adjustments, Feliciano Reyes of Accion Solidaria estimates that between 110,000 and 150,000 people are infected with the virus in Venezuela. At present, he added, only 32,000 people had been registered as being treated for HIV/AIDS infection.

The worst of it all, perhaps, is that a lot of Reyes' suspected unknown patients may not even be aware that they've been infected. "It's very possible that 100,000 people have it and don't know," he said. "A long time passes from when a person contracts it until the virus starts showing itself."

But, he continued, the lack of "solid and clear" data about the prevalence of the virus worked against efforts to analyze the incidence of the disease across the country, or to establish how the number of cases was increasing. Accion Solidaria was detecting at least 90 new cases a year, Reyes said, but was still in "land of uncertainty" when it came to establishing who was being infected.

The existence of an AIDS epidemic in Venezuela was formally recognized by the authorities in 1982. Between then and 2006, 61,426 cases were diagnosed in the country, according to a Venezuelan government report to a United Nations meeting in June last year.

The age range most at risk of infection is estimated at between 25 and 45 years. However, experts warn of a "tendency towards a sustained increase" in cases of infection in younger sectors of the population.

As is the case in some other Latin American countries, Macho culture is deemed to make if difficult to persuade males to seek medical attention at an early stage of possible infection, according to health sector social workers. Similarly, it's said that women are reluctant to come forward for fear of arousing hostility and suspicions about their personal morality.

Source: laht.com/