Concern about elderly and young living with AIDS

Article by John Sealy

HIV/AIDS is still a public health problem with a number of adults contracting the disease.

And according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Joy St John during a panel discussion on a topic dealing with the challenges facing modern health care in Barbados at Queen’s Park Steel Shed on Wednesday night, about 1.2 per cent of adults in Barbados are living with the disease.

President of the Barbados Association of Retired Persons Edward Bushell also lamented the number of “elderly and the very young” who are falling victim to HIV.

He said that with prevalance of sexual enhancers the elderly “could be tempted”.

St John said HIV/AIDS was declared a challenge by “the government of the day in the earlier 2000s and it is still an important public health problem with an estimated 1.2 per cent of adults in Barbados living with what has become another chronic disease”.

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