World AIDS Day Highlights Belize’s HIV Challenge

Today, as the world pauses to observe World AIDS Day, Belize confronts a sobering reality: despite decades of awareness and progress, the fight against HIV is far from over. Nearly forty years into the global epidemic and more than twenty-five years since Belize launched its own response, the numbers tell a troubling story, two hundred and forty-four new cases were recorded last year alone. Why, after so much knowledge and effort, does the virus still persist? What disruptions have stalled progress, and how can we truly transform the AIDS response to meet the ambitious 95-95-95 goal by 2030? These questions loom large as health leaders urge a renewed commitment to prevention, treatment, and viral suppression in a country where stigma and systemic gaps continue to challenge success.

 

Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Chair, National AIDS Commission

“Today is World AIDS Day, so it’s an international event marking the importance of the worldwide struggle and the continuing struggle against HIV and AIDS. I think many, many years into the epidemic now; I think, maybe close to forty years we have come into the epidemic, but it is still a challenge. Last year, we had two hundred and forty-four new cases of HIV. So, despite all of our efforts, we still have a challenge in Belize. The theme, as we mentioned in the ceremony today, was “Overcoming disruption and transforming the AIDS response” because we really have to transform the response if we are going to be successful by 2030. The goal, by 2030, is what we call 95-95-95. Ninety-five percent of people with HIV knowing their status. Ninety-five percent of that number being on anti-retroviral medication, and then the third ninety-five is ninety-five percent of those who are living with HIV, virally suppressed because we know that if you suppress the virus almost completely, then you don’t transmit the virus. So, there is a lot of knowledge that we have, and from the inception of our AIDS response in Belize thirty years ago, twenty-five years ago, we have known the information.”