–says CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General

DEPUTY Secretary- General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Manorma Soeknandan has declared that even persons living with HIV/AIDS have a fundamental right to health and health services.

“Everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, without discrimination or stigma, and only by placing human rights at the centre of global health can we ensure that healthcare in accessible, acceptable, available and of good quality for everyone, leaving no one behind,” the Surinamese-born diplomat said Thursday.

The occasion was an event organised by staff of the CARICOM Secretariat at Liliendaal to mark World Aids Day, the theme of which this year is: “The Right to Health”.
Speaking to the pertinence of the theme, Dr Soeknandan made no bones about it that the right to health is not a precious commodity; that rather it is the undeniable and fundamental right of everyone.

She also feels just as strongly that the issue of HIV/AIDS, and by extension overall health, must not be addressed in isolation, but rather through a human rights framework.

“I would like to encourage each of you to work towards achieving and maintaining health, and for us to work together to address the barriers such as stigma and discrimination that hinder vulnerable individuals access to health,” she said, adding:
“We need to ensure that People Living with HIV, as well as persons with disabilities and other vulnerable people have the right to health.”

Speaking specifically on the subject of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean, Dr Soeknandan acknowledged the efforts and progress being made by Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP).
“While we have been dealing with this devastating disease, in this case limited to HIV/AIDS, for over three decades, it has taught us many lessons,” she said.

Also weighing in on the subject was Senior Project Officer, Local Capacity Initiative project for the PANCAP Coordinating Unit, Mr Vivian Rookhum.
He related that since its establishment in 2001, PANCAP has seen many successes, of which the most noteworthy is the regional decline in the incidence of HIV and AIDS-related deaths.

He also highlighted that for World AIDS Day this year, observed annually since 1988 on December 1, a total of seven countries will be certified as having achieved the dual elimination of Mother to Child transmission of HIV and Syphilis. These countries are Cuba, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis.

In observance of this day, for the past five years, the staff of the CARICOM Secretariat has been donating food hampers of non-perishable goods to the Food Bank of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat under the Ministry of Public Health.

Reflecting on the past five years, Deputy Programme Manager of the Communications Unit, Ms Volderine Hackett said that the PANCAP coordinating team has always understood the critical link between HIV treatment and nutrition. And despite the challenges they would have faced throughout the years, the initiative has been sustained.

In the Caribbean, there were 310, 000 People Living With HIV in 2016, 18, 000 of whom were infected that same year. Also in 2016, a total of 9,400 people were reported to have died of AIDS-related illnesses in the Caribbean region.

In December 2016, NAPS had disclosed that there were some 7000 here living with HIV, but that the majority of them were being treated.