JAMAICA HAS seen a 45 per cent drop in the number of children infected with HIV/AIDS between January and June this year, compared to the same period in 2002, new statistics from the National HIV Control programme show.
Lovette Byfield, behaviour change communication programme specialist in the Health Ministry, credited this success to the Ministry's mother-to-child transmission reduction (MTC) programme.
It uses voluntary testing and the issuing of anti-retrovirals HIV-fighting drugs to pregnant women to reduce the possibility of HIV transmission to their babies.
SERIOUS IMPLICATIONS
But despite the good news, Ms. Byfield warned this had 'serious implications for the care and fate of children who will left behind by these parents when they eventually succumb to the disease.
She was speaking during yesterday's launch of a National Plan of Action, which aims to improve the lives of children orphaned by, living with or affected by HIV and AIDS.
The launch, held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, New Kingston, falls within World AIDS Week, which runs from November 23 to December 1, World AIDS Day.
The theme is, 'Live and Let Live'.
The week, like aspects of the action plan, is focusing on reducing stigma and discrimination against persons living with HIV or AIDS called seropositives and re-affirming their right to lead normal lives.
The Child Development Agency, UNICEF, the National AIDS Committee and the national steering committee on orphans and other children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS (OVCs), collaborated on the document which covers the period 2003 to 2006.
But while commending the country, some child welfare and care officials urged state agencies to swiftly implement the plan and ensure more help reaches children.
Health officials say there are over 5,000 children under age 15, who lost one or both parents to the pandemic and that this figure is set to rise.
Bertrand Bainvel, chair of the United Nations Theme Group on HIV and AIDS, asked the state to provide more help for children and their families.
The Justice and Labour and Social Security ministries, he said, must ease the financial and social burden by facilitating their exemption from paying school fees; support to help them buy school uniforms and by targeting them in the 'reformed social safety net programme'.
He also urged the Justice Ministry to 'punish all forms of discrimination' against children, whether verbal, psychological or exclusion from sporting fields, classrooms and the health centres.
He also stressed more HIV-fighting drugs must be made available to caregivers.
The action plan covers this by advocating for the provision of medical therapies to prolong the lives of persons living with the illness "since healthy parents result in fewer orphans," health officials said.
The plan will work with existing programmes to improve the children's quality of life by:
Strenthening families' and institutions' ability to care for children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS;
Ensuring persons are aware of their entitlements, available services and how to get them;
Sensitising teachers, community leaders, the police and care givers in the psychological and social issues which face these children;
Reducing stigma and discrimination against HIV-positive people through community interventions, public education campaigns and;
Co-ordinating information on issues facing these children so that relevant agencies can share information.
