The U.N. agency leading the fight against AIDS says preventive health programs in the Caribbean must be strengthened.

Karen Sealey is the chief of UNAIDS Caribbean. She says prevention needs to improve "to achieve an increase in knowledge about HIV," the virus that causes AIDS.

Sealey made the comments Thursday night in Port-of-Spain as she released the latest UNAIDS report.

Among other findings, the report concludes that discrimination against patients remains a problem in the Caribbean, where efforts to distribute condoms in schools have met bitter opposition on some islands.

The region, led by AIDS-plagued Haiti, has the second-highest infection rate outside of sub-Saharan Africa.