In the past thirty-odd years since HIV/AIDS took root in our societal discussions, there have been many advances on the road that stopped short of finding an ultimate cure. The fact that prevention, testing and treatment of HIV/AIDS have become virtually free of charge is one such achievement.
Nevertheless, there are still many barriers to break down: lingering stigma, fear of finding out one’s status and carefree lifestyles. These setbacks do very little to help the quest the world has now embarked on: eradicating HIV/AIDS permanently.
Last May, Executive Director of the Caribbean Broadcast Media Partnership (CBMP), Dr. Allyson Leacock, stated that the Caribbean stands a real chance of being the first region in the world to achieve an AIDS-free generation with no child born with HIV by the year 2020. She noted that Barbados had recorded no child born with the virus for the past six years.
As per Millennium Development Goal number 6 that speaks to combatting and reversing the trends of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases by 2015, there still remains a great deal of work to be done, especially in the case of the Caribbean. Today, the goal of eradicating HIV/AIDS by the year 2030 has been set.
Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony acknowledged last May that while remarkable successes had been achieved in other parts of the world, the Caribbean had fallen short of its targets.
“At the heart of winning this war is winning our awareness, minds and habits,” Dr. Anthony said at the launch of this year’s HIV/AIDS Regional Testing Day. “Saying that we can end HIV/AIDS is not only about finding a cure; it is about education, it is about culture (and) it is about society.”
But we do have some plusses on the home front, including no child born with the disease in Saint Lucia in the past five years. Such an achievement has been attributed to early testing and administering anti-retroviral therapy during the early stages of the reproductive process.
By May of this year, statistics from the Ministry of Health indicated that there had been 1,032 confirmed cases of HIV infections in Saint Lucia since 1985, with close to 600 people dying from AIDS.
Another World AIDS Day was observed last Tuesday. But World AIDS Day or not, the message needs to remain strong every day: that we stay safe and protected from HIV/AIDS by following the prescribed rules of abstinence, being faithful and using condoms. In doing so, we do our positive part by remaining HIV-negative.