Cuba Eliminates Some HIV Transmission

Havana, Jul 13. – The transmission of HIV through blood transfusions or blood products and from mother to unborn child has been eliminated in Cuba, according to Rosaida Ochoa, director of the National Center for the Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) and HIV/AIDS.

More than 99 percent of diagnosed HIV cases were sexually transmitted, and Havana is the Cuban city most affected by this epidemic, with 52.3 percent of cases, Ochoa said.

About 12,217 HIV-positive patients, 81 percent of whom are men, have been diagnosed from 1986 to date, she noted.

Ochoa told Granma newspaper that eight out of 10 of these infected males are classified as men who have sex with men (MSM), and that group reflects a higher incidence of transmission, mainly through unprotected anal sex.

She also referred to other sexually-transmitted diseases people should take into account when having unprotected sex, including the Human Papillomavirus, which causes cervical cancer, and genital herpes.(Prensa Latina)