A new United Nations AIDS report shows The Bahamas tied with St. Kitts and Nevis at 35% for new infections among young people between the ages of 15-24.

Director of the National AIDS/HIV and Infectious Diseases Program, Dr Nikkiah Forbes explained the report on Thursday.  She said, “some of the things that it looks at to generate those statistics is things like new HIV diagnosis, the number of people on medications just due to AIDS and treatment coverage in pregnant women.”

In The Bahamas, 130 people were diagnosed with HIV in 2023, with 22 infections in the 15-24 age group.  Dr. Forbes said, “the largest age group affected was the age group 30-39 years of age at 28% and the second highest age group affected was age 40-49 at 21%.  And then in the age group youth between the ages 15- 24 years that accounted for 17%.”

The National AIDS/HIV Director also revealed that the number of new cases among persons aged 15-24 has risen from 11 in 2021 to 22 in 2023.  “We don’t know the actual number of new diagnosis but what we have is the number of persons we’ve tested and how do we interpret this.  It’s something was have to keep an eye on and we need to continue to keep HIV at the forefront because each HIV infection is preventable.”

According to Dr. Forbes the current trends points to a decline in new infections.