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How does Guam compare? Chart Firstly, the HIV infection rates per 100,000 in population in the chart to the left must be viewed with caution. Different countnes have limited HIV testing resourses. Others have little uniformity in HIV/AIDS reporting requirements or expertise to make reports. Generally, reports of HIV per cqpita infection may be widely underreported. Countries and areas like Guam, CNMI, and Australia have well developed reporting systems. This not the case in some other Pacific/Asian countries. Therefore, when comparing the per capita HIV rates, remember that the rates are based only on reported data and we know that reporting require ments are not uniform. Since the data may not be reliably repolted, the HIV infection rates may also be unreliable. Nevertheless, since both the Western Regional Office of UNAIDS and South Pacific Commission provide quite comparable data and there is no practical way to obtam more reliable data, we will discuss this data with the reliability caveat in mind. The population used in determining our chart WCIS derived from population data and is based on HIV infection reports received as of 8/31/96. The South Pacific Commission population data for Guam (153,700) is mid-1996. Population differences or one or two more HIV-infected people may account for the slight difference in values for Guam and a few other locations. Data from the South Pacific Commission and the Regional Office of UNAIDS suggest that Guam ranks sixth in HIV infection among the seven countries in the region highest in HIV infection. Since UNAIDS pointed out that HIV testing and reporting may be artificially low in many countries for which data was provided, the reality of where we are in comparison to others may vary widely. Nevertheless, the figures do strongly suggest that on a per capita basis, HIV infection in Guam is far from low and perhaps among the highest in the region. Please help stop HIV from being spread even more on Guam.