Mixed report card for Caribbean response to HIV/AIDS

The Secretary General said that in acknowledging that the response to the epidemic must be a multi-sectoral one, the CARICOM Secretariat will continue to mainstream HIV and AIDS in its work programmes of health, education, youth and culture and advocate f

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, December 2, 2009 – As the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) joined the rest of the world to mark World AIDS Day, Secretary General Edwin Carrington reported that the assessments of the region’s response to the disease indicate a mixed score card.

The 2009 HIV and AIDS update by UNAIDS and WHO shows, among other things, that between 2001 and 2008, there has been a nine per cent increase in the rate of HIV infections in the Caribbean. It also shows that the rate of infection is increasing among women and that other at-risk groups continue to be men who have sex with men and commercial sex workers.

He said the call for more research into the role of bi-sexuality in the transmission of HIV and the reduction of stigma and discrimination, therefore, cannot be overemphasized.

“It is for this reason that the recent establishment of the PANCAP (Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS) Stigma and Discrimination Unit, as part of the regional response to research and policy, is an important first step that must be complemented by the work of our universities and other policy centres,” Carrington said in a speech to mark the day.

He added that the establishment and sustainability of PANCAP attests to the continued political leadership in the Caribbean in responding to this epidemic, but insisted that there is much more to be done, particularly in emphasising the fundamental rights of persons with HIV and AIDS.

The Secretary General said that in acknowledging that the response to the epidemic must be a multi-sectoral one, the CARICOM Secretariat will continue to mainstream HIV and AIDS in its work programmes of health, education, youth and culture and advocate for behavior change.

“We call for strengthening the role of the community of persons with HIV and AIDS in the decision making process and for placing even more emphasis on the role of strategic information and communication in the overall objective to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS,” he said.

Carrington committed the region to placing human rights and universal access to prevention, care and treatment at the centre of the response against HIV and AIDS.