THE Ministry of Health will again use this year’s World AIDS Day activities on December 1 to encourage sexually active persons to get tested for the deadly disease.

Like last year, this year’s theme – “Stop AIDS. Keep the promise – Go get tested” – is aimed at encouraging persons to know their HIV status in order to receive treatment, if necessary.

The ministry said it would be setting up outreach HIV testing in all parishes on World AIDS Day. “Persons who test negative have an incentive to reduce their risk behaviour and practise safe sex, use a condom every time and remain HIV-free,” Professor Peter Figueroa, chief of epidemilogy and AIDS at the Ministry of Health, said yesterday during the launch of World AIDS Day at Kings House in Kingston.

He added: “Persons who test positive can access counselling to help them adapt to living with HIV as well as access treatment early in order to maintain a healthy reproductive life for years.”

In the meantime, Professor Figueroa announced that the ministry has boosted the number of persons being tested by introducing HIV testing on a voluntary basis for all adults admitted to hospitals.

“Our data shows that as many as 10 per cent of all persons admitted to hospital may be HIV infected,” he said. “We already do routine testing of all pregnant women and persons presenting with a sexually transmitted infection.”

Additionally, Professor Figueroa said many private laboratories were offering HIV testing within 20 minutes, at a reasonable cost without having to see a doctor beforehand. Persons who test positive are counselled and referred for treatment.

Between January and June of this year, 451 new cases of AIDS (256 males and 195 females) were reported, compared to 473 persons between January and June 2005. And 196 persons died from AIDS last year, compared to 305 persons in 2004.

Since the outset of the disease in the 1980s, 11,004 persons have developed AIDS in Jamaica, and with an adult HIV prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent, it is estimated that there are 25,000 Jamaicans living with HIV. Kingston, St Andrew and St James account for almost 70 per cent of HIV/AIDS cases.

Activities leading up to World AIDS Day will begin tomorrow with HIV testing and displays at Portland Cottage in Clarendon, and continue with activities such as church services, educational sessions and health fairs throughout next week.

The national event will be hosted at Emancipation Park in Kingston on World AIDS Day.