Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 06, 2019 News
With a view of sharing the progress of the fight against HIV/AIDS, the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS [PANCAP] will host the Seventh meeting of National AIDS Programme [NAP] Managers and Key partners during the period March 11 – 13, 2019.
The event, which will be held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, will include over 130 NAP Managers, Chief Medical Officers, Permanent Secretaries, Development and Regional Partners, Implementing Partners such as civil society organizations that work with people living with HIV and key population groups, including youths.
The purpose of the meeting is to update programme managers and all stakeholders involved in the HIV response on national and regional commitments, progress on current global strategies. The meeting will also seek to identify innovative ways to address gaps identified in the UNAIDS 2018 Global AIDS Monitoring [GAM] Report and to strengthen the Caribbean regional HIV response.
The Meeting will facilitate information and best practice sharing; peer learning and technical cooperation among countries to strengthen ownership; improve harmonisation and sustainability of the Region’s HIV response.
Critical issues highlighted by the GAM report, which will form the basis of discussion, include the fact that there is an estimated 310,000 people living with HIV in the Caribbean at the end of 2017.
The gap to achieving the first 90 of the 90-90-90 Targets in 2017 was 54,800 people living with HIV who did not know their status. The gap to achieving the second 90 in 2017 is 74,400 people living with HIV who were not on treatment. The gap to achieving the third 90 in 2017 was attaining viral suppression of an additional 103,000 people living with HIV.
The targets speaks to 90 percent of the estimated number of people living with HIV being aware of their status; that 90 percent of those aware of their status are on sustained antiretroviral therapy, and of those on antiretroviral 90 percent must be virally suppressed.
According to information released by PANCAP, participants will be engaged in discussions on strategies for addressing these gaps as well as exploring what sustainability means for individual countries in the context of their existing economic realities and creating a roadmap for integration as a key strategy for sustainability.
Stakeholders will also receive updates on the achievements and synergies of the PANCAP, Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition [CVC-COIN] and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States [OECS] Global Fund grants and the transfer of regional public goods developed under these grants. Development and regional partners will also provide updates on programmes and activities that are contributing to the achievements of the goals and targets of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework on HIV [CRSF].
Ms. Aldora Robinson, NAP Coordinator, Turks and Caicos Islands and the National AIDS Programme Managers Representative on the PANCAP Governance Bodies, believes that the meeting could be a “game changer” at this critical point in the region’s HIV response.
“In an environment of reduced international funding for HIV, calls for country ownership, and the global vision of an AIDS-Free Generation, NAP Managers and CSOs must work together to establish innovative ways to address the gaps in the response as highlighted in the GAM report,” stated Robinson.
She added that the critical issues for discussion include: increasing access to HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections [STI] testing for key populations, including transgender and youth, and scaling-up [STI] testing within the HIV combination prevention approach.
Countries will also commit to implementing innovative strategies for reaching, testing and retaining persons on treatment and for preventing HIV among key populations and reporting on progress. The meeting is expected to culminate with an agreement by all stakeholders on strategies for addressing gaps in achieving the 90-90-90 Targets, a critical element of PANCAP’s vision for an AIDS-free Caribbean.
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