The Minister of Health Dr Fenton Ferguson yesterday disclosed that men who have sex with both men and women accounted for almost 40% of new HIV infections in 2012.

“While we have a prevalence rate of 1.8% among the general population, female sex workers have a prevalence of 4.2%, young men under 25 years who have sex with men are at 24.3% as at 2013,” the health minister explained.

“I want to further note that MSM who reported being involved in sex work, reported an HIV prevalence of 41%, transgender women 45%, and transgender populations in sex work reaching as high as 56%.”

Insisting that the prevalence rate among these groups are “way too high”, Dr Ferguson said that much of the efforts must be concentrated on these vulnerable groups, adding that there is the ever present challenge of implementing mechanisms to effectively deal with the issue of stigma and discrimination. Read More