Health Minister Says Saint Lucians Can Be More Optimistic About HIV Outlook

PRESS RELEASE – THE fear surrounding the emerging HIV epidemic in the 1980s largely persists today. MICHEL SIDIBÉ UNAIDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, said, “We must not be scared of the future. If we quicken the pace, we can reach 30 million with HIV treatment by 2020.” (Unquote). “HIV is not a death Sentence” were the spoken words of Health Minister, Sen. the Hon. Mary Isaac, whilst addressing media personnel at the Caribbean Cytometry Analytical Society 15th summit opening cocktail reception in Saint Lucia.

“We still have so much stigma attached to persons living with HIV to the point where a lot of people don’t even want to come out to be treated. Tonight we have heard about getting tested and treated and that is so very important and vital for that segment of society. Many Saint Lucians still believe that being infected with HIV is a death sentence and it is good that CCAS is here to educate at least the people who will be participating to educate them that it is not a death sentence, there is help, there is hope and you can continue to live a very healthy and long life even if you are infected with HIV. So for Saint Lucia, this is a very important event that is taking place right here and hope that it’s out to the public.”

Meanwhile, Chairman for the Caribbean Cytometry and Analytical Society (CCAS) Professor Clive Landis assures Saint Lucians and by extension Caribbean people, the HIV treatment works.

“Currently we treat HIV patients and we can save their lives and I want to just repeat that because it is very important. HIV has long seized to be a death sentence; you can live very well with HIV. But the key point is that when someone is on treatment with HIV then they also become non-infectious because the HIV is suppressed in their body and cannot be transmitted and we know that because in parts of the Caribbean we’ve been very successful at suppressing HIV in women’s bodies who are pregnant and they cannot transmit the virus to their own child. So there are now seven countries in the Caribbean which have been certified by the WHO having eliminated HIV transmission from pregnant mothers to their children and the basis of that is very simple. The treatment of HIV in the mom’s bodies suppresses the virus to the point where it cannot be transmitted to the baby and the baby is free from HIV. The same thing happens with sexual transmission of HIV. If the person who has HIV is on treatment then that person he or she cannot pass the virus on to their sexual partner, and so the Minister has reminded us to be a bit more positive about where we are right now in the HIV epidemic, we can save lives and when we place people on treatment we can inhabit the spread of the disease.”

Health officials are stressing the fact that the elimination of HIV is a community effort and are calling for the elimination of societal barriers as they deter people from coming forward for treatment. The CCAS summit ran from August 26th to the 30th under the theme, “From Care to Cure: Towards the Elimination of HIV”.