THE Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) has placed renewed emphasis on ensuring that persons infected with HIV know their status, which saw “Know Your Status” revealed as the theme on Friday at the  launch of the World AIDS Day 2018 and 16 Days of Activism to End Gender-Based Violence.

“If we are to achieve the end of AIDS persons must know their status, it is critical,” stressed PANCAP Director Dereck Springer, a behaviour specialist.

The UNAIDS is on a fast track strategy to end AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) by 2030, however for this to be achieved, one of the pillars of the strategy rests on the need for at least 90 per cent of those infected to know their HIV status.
It also involves those knowing being treated, and moving towards viral suppression. UNAIDS calls it their 90-90-90 plan.

They’re striving that by 2020 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their status, of those diagnosed with the virus at least 90 per cent will receive treatment and of those it is targeted that at least 90 per cent will achieve viral suppression.”

“Once we can do that we can end AIDS,” Springer posited.

“It is critical if we are to achieve the end of AIDS persons must know their status. It provides those who are negative with an opportunity to assess their risk and take measures to reduce those risks. For those who are positive it’s an entry point for care and support.”

In Guyana, there are 8,200 people living with HIV, an increase of some 1,600 persons since 2010, according to PANCAP statistics. There were 500 new cases, and more than 200 deaths as a result of AIDS. There’s an estimated 1,417 people living with HIV who are not on treatment.

For Springer the factors that lead to high rates of HIV and AIDS need to be addressed as seriously as the disease itself. One of the biggest risk factors being targeted for elimination is violence against women and girls.

“It is critical that we recognise that HIV is not our problem, the socio-economic issues that put persons at risk are our real problem. It is crucial that we bring this issue around gender, within the context of HIV, out of isolation,” Springer said.

The Caribbean Region is said to have the second highest rate of violence against women in the world.

“Violence against women and girls remains a pervasive problem everywhere. Forty nine countries in the world have no laws to protect women. Our CARICOM Region accounts for some of the highest rates of violence in the world, one in three women or girls have experienced physical or sexual violence,” said Ann-Marie Williams, Deputy Programme Manager for Gender and Development at the CARICOM Secretariat.

World AIDS Day will be celebrated around the world on December 1. There are also a number of other human rights issues that will also be celebrated over the next few days, all of which will become a part of the 16 days of activism, which begin this Sunday, November 25, with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. On Monday, December 10, International Human Rights Day will be celebrated.