Dr Anne Frische, technical adviser of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, said: "People do use condoms ...

but it's like brushing your teeth.

Some people don't brush their teeth every night because they're too tired.

Here we're talking about something that's seen to be spontaneous and playful, and saying put on a condom every time."

With this in mind, she said it was imperative that Government and non-governmental organisations strengthen their approach against the pandemic.

Without new statistics and information, Frische mainly contextualised a lot of previously available information.

In a glimmer of hope, she noted that the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant girls between the ages of 15 and 19 was on the decline, saying that this was a good indication of new infections declining as well.

"We have to be careful in our representation," she said, adding that it's not really possible to measure new infections.

"Even if I was infected yesterday, I wouldn't be able to tell."

However, if a child was infected at birth, she said, it normally wouldn't live up to the 15-to-19 age group, indicating that the prevalence rate in this group was likely to also indicate new infections.

On the flipside, the prevalence rate in the 35-to-39 age group was on the increase, Frische said, adding that it was difficult to interpret this.

"It might be because they [HIV-positive women] are living longer because of treatment," she suggested.

People were also getting tested more often since treatment was introduced, she said, adding that this might be because testing seemed to make more sense now.

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