THE Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV [Human Immunodeficiency Virus] and AIDS [Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome], on Thursday, opened its first ‘Share Fair’, according to a Ministry of Health (MoH) release.

The event was hosted under the theme “Optimising treatment and improving the quality of care for People Living with HIV using Dolutegravir (DTG) as the preferred first-line therapy,” the MoH release noted.
For his part, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, addressed Thursday’s small gathering where he underscored that funding for HIV was changing as there were competing interests which included the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the MoH release, the Minister said those other issues had led “to the rearranging of priorities and resources within organisations such as the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).”
The Health Minister seized the moment to urge a change in colonial-era legislation in the Caribbean which prevents organisations from accessing persons who need HIV/AIDS care and treatment, the release continued.
“The United Kingdom (UK) has since changed their legislations completely, that’s where our legislation originated,” the Minister is quoted as saying.

Hosted at the Grand Coastal Hotel, East Coast Demerara (ECD), the event was a knowledge-sharing one geared at optimising HIV treatment with the use of DTG and sharing experiences from the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), and civil society organisations.
Funded by the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the two-day knowledge-sharing experience included representatives from Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados.

Officer-in-Charge of PANCAP’s Coordinating Unit, Collin Kirton told the attendees that the training allows for understanding of the progress in the DTG-based first-line regiment and its use among adolescent, children, pregnant women and what the release referred to as “special populations”.

The PANCAP officer is also attributed in the release to have stated that “even though the region is now recovering from the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, PANCAP is still aiming to achieve that 95-95-95 target.”
Also in attendance were Dr Luis Felipe Codina, representative of the Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) in Guyana, and PANCAP Coordinating Unit’s Knowledge Management Coordinator, Dr Shanti Singh-Anthony.

The target is connected to the 90-90-90 set by UNAIDS “that by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their status are receiving treatment and 90% of people on HIV treatment have a suppressed viral load so their immune system remains strong and the likelihood of their infection being passed on is greatly reduced,” the UNAIDS “Understanding Fast-Track: Accelerating Action to End the AIDS Epidemic by 2030” report reads.

“The Fast-Track approach means rapidly scaling up effective HIV services during the next five years,” the report said, adding: “it involves using rights-based approaches to reach the people who need these services and focuses the programmes in locations and among populations where they can have the greatest impact.”
Service coverage, impact and zero-discrimination are the combined targets of the Fast-Track approach.