The number of Rwandans living with AIDS goes down.
Between 2006 and 2007, the number of people living with HIV or AIDS in Rwanda has gone down, according to a United Nations report. In 2006 the number of people infected was 191,437; the next year the number decreased to 184,859.  The report, which was presented Wednesday at a forum, also says that the percentage of young women becoming infected with the virus is still high, and the number is rising. Among women, 3.7 percent between the ages of 15-19 are infected; 2.5 percent of women ages 20-24 are infected; and between 4.9 percent and 6.8 percent of women ages 30-34 are infected by the virus. In a 2005 survey, 2.3 percent of men were infected with HIV compared to 3.6 percent of women, reports The New Times (an African newspaper).  “A complex combination of social, economic and biological factors increases the vulnerability of women to HIV,” the report reads. “HIV/AIDS is everyone’s concern because it is among things that hinder development,” Fulgence Afrika, the director of planning, coordination, monitoring and evaluation or programs told The New Times. During the forum, prevention and getting people access to adequate medication were topics of discussion, says Afrika. Over 14,000 people are on HIV/AIDS retroviral medication in the nation.

Not many are poor in one Caribbean nation.

The Cayman Islands, a British Overseas Territory, has the lowest poverty rate in the English-speaking Caribbean, reports the BBC.  Among the nation’s 53,000 citizens, only 1.9 percent are under the poverty line. This number is in stark contrast to many other countries in the Caribbean, many of which are suffering from rates in the double digits. “Indeed, at 1.9 percent of the population, the number of persons living below the poverty line can be described as marginal. This compares, for example, with 9.3 percent for the Bahamas in 2001 and 11 percent in the British Virgin Islands in 2002. In most other Caribbean countries, the average rate is above 10 percent,” said the Hon. D. Kurt Tibbetts, the nation’s Leader of Government Business in a statement. The study was conducted by the National Assessment of Living Conditions (NALC) using the same methods sanctioned by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), according to the Cayman Island’s Web site.

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