An article, headlined Ministry of Labour figures, show HIV/Aids on the rise in T&T-published on page A8 on Wednesday July 27 carried five incorrect statements. T&T Guardian apologises to the HIV/Aids Advocacy and Sustainability Centre (HASC) of the Ministry of Labour.
•The article stated that according to the HASC, one in every 15 persons was affected with the HIV/Aids and that some 20,000 people were living with the disease.
The statements were incorrect and they did not represent the data from the HASC.
•The article also stated that according to the ILO report, nine out of every ten people were living with the virus, the majority of them adults in their productive prime.
The correct statement was that nine of every ten people living with HIV were adults in their productive prime.
•The article stated that statistics showed people from within the informal economy were more vulnerable to being infected with virus.
In fact, research has demonstrated that persons in the informal economy were more vulnerable to being affected rather than infected by HIV.
•The statement that lower income and selling sex for money were more common in that category (informal economy) was not a blanket statement but referred to research in African countries that conducted studies on their informal economies.
•That the HASC conducted an afternoon session with the Route Two Maxi Taxi Association was incorrect.