HIV/AIDS remains the leading cause of death in young and middle-aged adults in the Caribbean, according to a U.N. study released at the 10th Annual General Meeting of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) and reported by IPS. Despite gains in access to HIV medications in the past decade, between 210,000 and 270,000 people were living with HIV in the Caribbean in 2008—about 70 percent of them in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The biggest improvements were seen in maternal health and mother-to-child transmission, which lowered new infections among children by 18 percent in 2008.

To read the IPS article, click here.