By Erica James-King, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
HEALTH MINISTER John Junor has accused Guyanese President Bharrat Jagdeo of suffering from 'foot and mouth' disease.
The Minister's statement comes in the wake of Jagdeo accusing Jamaica and other regional countries of not accurately reporting HIV/AIDS and crime figures in a bid to protect their economies.
"I guess every now and again politicians suffer from foot 'n mouth (disease)," the Minister said. He made the comments in response to questions from reporters, prior to the official opening ceremony for the Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica's Expo/Retreat at Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay.
Noting that he is baffled as to why the Guyanese President would have made negative comments on Jamaica's reporting of its HIV/AIDS cases, Minister Junor said President Jagdeo could be just giving in to a disease affecting some politicians " foot and mouth disease" which has as its symptoms, the shooting-off of their mouth before checking the facts on a particular issue.
While Mr. Junor stopped short of calling Mr. Jagdeo's comments offensive, he said the president was misinformed and 'ill-advised' on Jamaica's HIV/AIDS coverage and its HIV/AIDS awareness and treatment programmes.
"We have been very open with our statistics, we have given reports every year. In fact, so much have we highlighted this matter that we had a joint session of Parliament (on the matter)," declared the Health Minister.
CREDIBLE DATA
Mr. Junor noted that while he had not seen the text of Mr. Jagdeo's speech, he had heard from 'fairly reliable sources' the content of the speech. The Health Minister maintained that Jamaica's HIV/AIDS data is credible, and his Ministry has been consistent in gathering data and ensuring that the information is not falsified.
According to the Minister, the Ministry has heightened its activities in tourist areas which are more vulnerable to the disease than other parts of the island.
"Our programme has been targeting very heavily, the tourism areas and in almost all our releases, we make the point that the prevalence rate is higher in our tourism areas than anywhere else. If we were trying to hide the facts for reasons that it could affect our tourism product, why would we be saying that," Mr. Junor noted in an interview with The Gleaner on the weekend.
Underscoring his Ministry's transparent approach to the HIV situation, Mister Junor pointed out that the same basis on which HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Jamaica are calculated is the same basis on which the Guyanese prevalence rates are arrived at. He notes that all HIV/AIDS prevalence rates are estimates. Jamaica has a HIV/AIDS prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent to two per cent of the population.
Mr. Junor says he is heartened by the media's response in reporting the disease, especially the print media, which does detailed weekly reports on the disease.
Minister Junor's remarks last Friday night, on the heels of the Government's Information Minister Senator Burchell Whiteman's attempts earlier that day, to play down the Jagdeo scenario. Minister Whiteman stated that "the transcript from the tape... says absolutely nothing which indicates that the President meant to convey the impression Jamaica was deliberately hiding information about HIV/AIDS to protect its Tourism Ministry."
At a forum in Atlanta, USA on June 16, President Jagdeo reportedly claimed that Jamaica was not disclosing full details relating to cases of HIV infections.
