HIV/AIDS Facts - Caribbean

HIV/AIDS infection rates in the Caribbean are among the highest in the world second only to Sub-Saharan Africa. As of December 1999, there were 360,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. By the end of the 2000, that number had grown to an estimated 390,000. In the English-speaking Caribbean, HIV/AIDS is now the leading cause of death among men between the ages of 15 and 44 years. In English-speaking Caribbean, 35% of HIV positive adults were women. Approximately one out of every 300 people living in the US Virgin Islands is living with HIV/AIDS.

Source: UNAIDS, HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean Fact Sheet, February 2001