Dear Editor,

I am disappointed, but not surprised, that Michel de Groulard, regional programme adviser of UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team, claims that the HIV rate among MSM in the Bahamas is 8 per cent and uses this “data” as evidence supporting a need for other Caribbean countries to follow the Bahamas in decriminalising sodomy.

The figure of 8 per cent appears on Page 22 of the document Bahamas – 2010 Country Progress Report prepared by the National HIV/AIDS Centre, Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

In the category “the percentage of MSM who are HIV infected” the document gives figures of 8.18 per cent for 2006 and 25.64 per cent for 2008.

The document is also careful to state that the data represented “preliminary results from a limited sero-prevalence study of a targeted MSM population”.

Why is the UNAIDS representative using preliminary results from a limited study to justify decriminalisation of sodomy, and more important, why is the UNAIDS representative using the old estimate of 8 per cent rather than the more recent estimate of 25 per cent?

W West

Kingston 6

wayne_west@hotmail.com