12:41 PM |
Dear All,
Please find a press release from the Ministry of Health of Tuvalu. Dr Homasi's email is at the bottom should anyone wish to interview him.
Thank you
ruci
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Fears of an HIV epidemic in Tuvalu have been overstated, say local health authorities
28 May 2010, Ministry of Health, Tuvalu – Tuvalu's Ministry of Health has described as an "alarmist" recent reports that described the country's rate of HIV as the highest cumulative incidence rate in the Pacific.
Reacting to reports, Tuvalu's Director of Health, Dr Stephen Homasi said the 11 HIV cases reported on the island nation is the total number since reporting began in the 1980s.
"There were only two new cases of HIV recorded since 2001, and none since 2008," Dr Homasi said.
UNICEF's Chief of Policy, Advocacy, Planning and Evaluation, Dr Will Parks, was reported on Radio New Zealand and the Age newspaper in Australia to have suggested that Tuvalu could be in trouble.
"Tuvalu is on the verge of reaching a general epidemic amongst its population" Dr Parks said.
Dr Homasi noted that Dr Parks had commended governments for 'taking prevention efforts'.
'We are doing much more testing in Tuvalu and we take HIV prevention very seriously. However, even scaling up testing has not resulted in a significant number of new diagnoses, Dr Homasi said in reacting to statements made by Dr Parks.
Dr Homasi added that to allow comparison between Pacific island countries and territories with different population sizes, case numbers are typically standardized to report 'HIV cumulative incidence per 100,000'.
Referring to HIV surveillance reports compiled by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Dr Homasi said Tuvalu has a cumulative incidence rate of 99.2 per 100,000 which is relatively high in the region.
"However, this is a problematic rate to use when populations are so small."
"Because the population in Tuvalu is only 11,000, if there are two or three new HIV diagnoses reported, it represents a dramatic increase in the rate 'per 100,000'," Dr Homasi said.
Dr Homasi said testing access has increased significantly in Tuvalu in recent years and Second Generation Surveillance surveys have also expanded testing to several populations. These surveys have not identified any new HIV infections, but high rates of other sexually transmitted infections (STI) are a concern.
For more information:
Dr Stephen Homasi, Director of Health Tuvalu, e-mail: s.homasi@yahoo.com
For further information on Tuvalu's National HIV/AIDS and STI Strategic Plan and program achievements, see:
http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2010/tuvalu_2010_country_progress_report_en.pdf
For HIV surveillance data, see: http://www.spc.int/hiv/index.php?option=com_docman&task=cat_view&gid=108&Itemid=148
For PICT population data, see:
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