Gleaner Company Chairman Oliver Clarke has called for legislators to invite persons infected with HIV/AIDS to have meal with them at Parliament's lunch room.
Mr. Clarke, speaking during Wednesday's sitting of Parliament's Human Resources and Social Development Committee, suggested that such a move would assist in removing the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
"I think in Jamaica there are too few people, who are known to the public, who are taking a sufficiently strong stand to demonstrate that we need to reduce the stigma," Mr. Clarke said to the committee chaired by Dr. Donald Rhodd, Minister of State for Youth and Culture. "We need to deal with the problem like we deal with any other medical issue and get on with it."
The committee was meeting to discuss what legislators could do to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
According to Mr. Clarke, committee members should extend the invitation for a meal to HIV/AIDS sufferers as well as seek to have a sitting in Montego Bay, St. James, where the disease is particularly prevalent.
He further suggested that the Cabinet also break one of its regular Monday meetings and have a meal with HIV sufferers.
HIV in the workplace
The Gleaner Company chairman was summoned to outline the organisation's approach to tackling attitudes toward HIV in the workplace.
The committee also heard from Dr. Peter Figueroa, chief of epidemiology and AIDS in the Ministry of Health, as well as former commercial sex workers.
Dr. Figueroa indicated that the Health Ministry estimates there are about 22,000 persons infected with AIDS in the island. Of that amount, about 15,000 are unaware because they have not been tested.
One former commercial sex worker lamented the high levels of illiteracy within the field and the resulting inability of workers to properly use condoms.
