Trinidadian artist and theatre designer Geoffrey Stanford, who succumbed to HIV/AIDS, was buried here Tuesday, 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.