Only about a quarter of Panama AIDS cases are treated

An estimated 20,000 people in Panama are suffering from AIDS, but only about 5,500 are being treated and over 10,000 in the country have died of the disease since it was first identified in 1981.

Panama is among the five countries in the region with the highest AIDS rates. It is behind Haiti, Belize, Surinam and Guyana

A top level team will travel from Panama to New York this week to take part  in an international conference on ways of preventing transmission  of the disease from pregnant mothers to their babies.

The meeting will be held at the same time that the United Nations is examining the progress made against the spread of AIDS

To date, some 30 million people worldwide have died from the disease