Clinton

MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CMC):

An ambitious plan by the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PAN-CAP) to achieve universal access to AIDS prevention, care and treatment by 2010 is being lauded by former United States president Bill Clinton.

PANCAP, a network which includes Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and all the countries of the English, French and Dutch-speaking Caribbean, is engaged in collective action based on one strategic plan, one management system and one financial strategy for mobilisation of resources.

Turn the tide

"You can get to universal treatment, the money is there now if we spend it most effectively," Clinton said. "We're (going to) have enough money now to take care of the first-line drugs, the people who will come under second line to give all the medication to stop mother-to-child transmission, to do all the anti-retroviral paediatric ARVs."

The Clinton Foundation has been seeking to turn the tide of the HIV/AIDS pandemic by working with governments and other partners to increase the availability of AIDS care and treatment for people in need, lower the cost of essential tests and treatments, and strengthen health systems in the developing world.

Common purpose

"AIDS is a very big dragon. This dragon must be slain by millions and millions of foot soldiers," Clinton told delegates attending the 17th International AIDS conference that ends on Friday. "We all come here with a common purpose. We want to prevent new infections, provide care and treatment to all who are infected, support the search for a completely effective prevention, and the ever-elusive cure."

The Caribbean remains second only to sub-Saharan Africa that has two-thirds or 67 per cent of all people living with HIV worldwide. UNAIDS says an estimated 20,000 persons in the Caribbean were infected last year with the disease and some 14,000 died of AIDS-related illnesses last year.