Shinique Walters | HIV in Jamaica’s tourism belt: The hidden cost of losing foreign aid

Jamaica’s tourism industry provides employment for many citizens across communities such as Ocho Rios, Negril, Montego Bay and Falmouth. With Jamaican workers interacting daily with visitors from around the world, the tourism sector also brings important sexual health considerations to the forefront, including the risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). This concern has become even more significant with the loss of international financing that has supported Jamaica’s response to managing HIV. The United States’ withdrawal and restructuring of foreign assistance, including changes affecting programmes supported through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), raises an important question for Jamaica: What happens when a country that has depended heavily on external assistance suddenly has to do more with less?

According to the Ministry of Health in Jamaica, approximately 28,000 people were living with HIV in Jamaica in 2026, with an estimated prevalence of about 1.1 per cent. The government has therefore set a target of reducing new HIV infections by 40 per cent by 2030. However, these numbers should not create panic. Instead, they should reinforce the need for stronger and more sustained action to address these figures.

Jamaica Tourism Belt and HIV

Data from the Ministry of Health have historically shown that tourism communities in Westmoreland, St James and St Ann have recorded relatively higher rates of HIV/AIDS. This, however, does not mean that the increased rate of HIV is a result of tourism, as such an assessment would be unfair. Rather, tourism communities possess characteristics that make sustained prevention important. These include population mobility, seasonal employment, migrant workers, and interaction between local and international populations. Therefore, this further supports the point that HIV prevention cannot simply be treated as a conventional health-facility issue. Prevention information must instead reach people where they live, work and socialise. At the same time, the ministry has highlighted that HIV trends in western Jamaica remained relatively stable, with an increase in 2024 followed by a return to approximately baseline levels in 2025.

This distinction is key, as we cannot claim that Jamaica is experiencing an HIV “explosion” in its tourism areas in 2026. The data do not support the notion that there is an explosion in the tourism areas. However, the important question that we must ask ourselves is whether the conditions that prevent an increase are being weakened.

Where the loss of funding becomes important

HIV financing does not simply pay for medications. It supports a broader perspective regarding prevention that can include community outreach, testing, education, condom distribution, and preventive programmes that serve the needs of populations that are sometimes difficult to reach through conventional health systems. With the loss of funding, the consequences may not, however, appear immediately in national HIV statistics. The effects may instead become more evident through fewer outreach workers, fewer community testing activities, a reduction in prevention campaigns, less engagement with vulnerable populations, less access to PrEP, and fewer people being tested and later diagnosed with HIV.

Therefore, Jamaica has historically relied on external financing for its HIV response. UNAIDS estimated that 70 per cent of Jamaican HIV resources come from external sources, with PEPFAR supporting a significant proportion of HIV services. This creates a vulnerability, as foreign assistance can help countries build programmes and strengthen community organisations. But, with changes in donor priorities, governments are suddenly confronted with a difficult question: Who pays when the donor no longer does?

It is important to remember that Jamaicans should not assume that every programme previously supported by external donors will simply disappear. However, the current changes demonstrate the danger of depending too heavily on external financing for essential public health services.

We cannot wait for the numbers to rise

Jamaica has made significant progress in the fight against HIV. The loss of international assistance should be treated as an opportunity to determine whether Jamaica can build a sustainable domestic financing model for HIV prevention. Governments must identify how HIV services have depended on external financing and determine which are vulnerable to funding reductions.

The private sector also has a key role to play, as the tourism industry benefits from a healthy workforce and safe communities. Hotels, entertainment companies and tourism organisations should not view HIV prevention as solely the responsibility of the Ministry of Health. The private sector must ensure that workplace education, testing initiatives, partnerships with community organisations, and financial support for prevention programmes are also maintained. By strengthening these activities, we are putting measures in place to help ensure that the loss of external financing does not contribute to an increase in HIV infections in the future. Jamaica has an opportunity to move from aid dependence towards sustainable financing.

Therefore, we should further strengthen domestic funding, protect community based prevention, improve surveillance in high-burden tourism communities, and encourage the tourism industry to become a partner in protecting the health of its workforce and its communities. There is a need to remember that Negril, Ocho Rios and Montego Bay are more than tourism destinations. These are communities, and the health of the community is inseparable from the health of Jamaica’s tourism industry.

Development aid has helped Jamaica’s fight against HIV for decades, but this assistance is changing. The responsibility, therefore, is to protect these communities by helping them protect Jamaica’s gains in HIV prevention.

Dr Shinique Walters is a lecturer in the Department of Government and research fellow at the Centre for Leadership and Government at The University of the West Indies, Mona. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and shiniquewalters@gmail.com.