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HEALTH-CARIBBEAN
AIDS Has Not Yet Peaked - Experts
By
Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Oct (IPS) - Trinidadian artist and theatre
designer Geoffrey Stanford, who succumbed to HIV/AIDS, was buried
here on the eve of an international conference for people living
with the disease.
Official
statistics indicate that two out of every three people in the Caribbean
who are diagnosed with AIDS die within a short period. The overall
death toll is estimated at 120 people per month.
"These statistics point to the inadequate nature of the attention
and support given to the plight of persons living with HIV/AIDS,"
says St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Denzil Douglas.
Five years ago, Stanford founded the group Artists Against AIDS
in a bid for greater awareness of the disease and to halt discrimination
against persons who had contracted the disease.
As he was buried, more than 600 delegates from around the world
were assembling for the 10th International Conference for Peoples
Living with HIV/AIDS.
"In this, the tenth edition of our gathering, we are celebrating
our lives. For some of us, that is simply celebrating the gift of
being alive today. Many of us did not anticipate arriving to this
date alive," says Stuart Flavell, international coordinator,
of the non-governmental Global Network of Peoples Living With HIV/AIDS,
one of the conference sponsors.
The Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) has estimated that the
Caribbean is second only to Sub-Saharan Africa in the incidence
of HIV/AIDS. In Trinidad and Tobago alone, more than 17,000 persons
are affected with the HIV virus, a figure that health officials
say only represents "those who have been in contact with the
health institutions."
CAREC says that, ominously, the epidemic is shifting to younger
age groups, particularly among girls. HIV prevalence is two to four
times higher for women between 15 and 24 years old than in all other
female age groups, and three to six times higher than males in the
same age group.
The HIV infection rate among pregnant women also has risen, to just
above one percent, according to CAREC.
"What is revealed here is that the gender gap is closing and
although there are more men than women with HIV infection, some
countries are already experiencing parity," says Douglas, who
has lead responsibility for health issues within the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM).
With this changing pattern, health officials also warn that the
disease is not just making orphans of increasing numbers of children:
During 1999 alone, an estimated 780-1,170 children were infected
with HIV as a result of mother-to-child transmission.
"This situation, in the context of the single parent family
structure in the Caribbean, could place intolerable strain on a
community development infrastructure that is already overburdened,"
Douglas says.
Officials estimate that the number of persons living with HIV/AIDS
is around 500,000, an increase of 40,000 persons since the end of
last year.
The impact of that figure has been felt not only by patients, their
friends and family and health systems, but also in the economic
sphere, where productivity and output have suffered.
"No matter the perspective from which we choose to view it,
the situation provides a clear and present danger to humankind,
and is ample cause for alarm here in the Caribbean region,"
says Douglas.
Caribbean leaders have adopted a plan of action to deal with the
growing HIV/AIDS situation, identifying six major areas for coordinated
regional action.
These include advocacy, policy development and legislation, prevention
of transmission among young people and vulnerable high-risk population
groups, and strengthening national and regional response capabilities.
Even as policy makers piece together their plans, however, James
St. Catherine, CARICOM's programme manager for health sector development
warns that the AIDS epidemic has yet to reach its peak in the Caribbean.
St. Catherine notes that while in parts of the world including some
African states, the HIV/AIDS pandemic has reached its peak and has
begun to level off, the situation is totally different for the Caribbean,
"where we have not yet reached there."
The future therefore seems daunting for officials and populations
scrambling to provide ready and easy access to care and treatment
for people already living with HIV.
"For too long in developing countries, care was relegated to
an afterthought, (as if to say,) 'When we have done everything else,
we're going to talk about care'," says Peter Piot, executive
director of UNAIDS, the United Nations joint programme on AIDS.
Piot says countries should not wait until the conditions are right
to act: Yes, health infrastructures are weak; yes, there are competing
health priorities; yes, counselling and testing are needed; yes,
both infants and mothers need protection from the impact of HIV.
"But solving all these problems will not come by waiting for
the perfect conditions; it would come by wading in now, seizing
today's opportunities when and where they exist," Piot insists.
As the adults attending the conference come to terms with the grim
statistics and gloomy forecasts of a disease that is striking ever-younger
populations, young musicians from throughout the Caribbean have
participated in a calypso competition aimed at highlighting the
spread of HIV in the region.
"People be aware, it's destructive beyond compare, HIV and
AIDS spreading through the West Indies," 8-year-old Ezekiel
Yorke of Antigua and Barbuda, winner of the 5-12 age group, sang.
His compatriot Leston Jacobs warned his peers that their "reckless
ways" are resulting in the spread of the virus. (END/IPS)
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