Claudine Housen, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
BARBADIAN PRIME Minister Owen Arthur, is calling on Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to develop new procedures for population monitoring to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS against the backdrop of the implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) on January 5 next year.
"As we proceed to the CSME, this region will be characterised by a highly mobile population whose movement places us at a greater risk of transmitting HIV/AIDS," Mr. Arthur said.
He was speaking at the launch of the international UNAIDS best practice collection: 'A study of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/ AIDS (PANCAP)" at the Half Moon Hotel, in Montego Bay on Monday.
NEW MODALITY
With regards to the implementation of the CSME in 2005, Mr. Arthur also called on members of the CARICOM countries to examine and refine their population monitoring system so that it reflects the number of persons infected with HIV/AIDS.
"We need to develop a new modality of population to ensure that (HIV/AIDS) spread will not become one of the unintentional by-products of the creation of the CSME," Mr. Arthur said. "In the (English Speaking) Caribbean there about 78,000 persons living with AIDS and fewer than five per cent of them have access to HIV treatment. This is an unacceptable situation."
Reminding attendees that they should not let the deaths of those who lost their lives to the HIV/AIDS virus be in vain, Mr. Arthur said that "We must all try to save the lives of those who cannot save themselves."
Over the past two years, PANCAP has broken ground in reducing the prices for anti-retroviral drugs," he reported. "However this is still too high. With the substantial new funding that has been approved from the global fund and the World Bank for the region, PANCAP must provide new strategies to provide technical assistance to countries in the most effective way."
Established in 2001, PANCAP is a multi-sectoral, multi-level partnership which includes the governments of all countries and territories of the Caribbean.
