PANCAP calls for end to travel restrictions of persons living with HIV

Ap p r o x i m a t e l y 200 delegates at-tending the 10thAnnual General Meetingof the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS called for uni-versal access to preven-tion, care and treatment to be at the centre of the HIV and AIDS response.As the delegates endedtheir meeting held in St Maarten, on November 2, they tabled the resolu-tion calling for universal access. The 10-year-old Partnership committed to eliminating, by 2015, mother-to-child trans-mission and travel re-strictions of persons liv-ing with HIV; increasing by 80 per cent access to care and treatment; de-creasing by 50 per cent the number of new infec-tions; and accelerating the human rights agen-da. According to a re-lease from the Caricom Secretariat, the resolu-tion also called for re-es- tablishing “Champions for Change” to include parliamentarians, rep-resentatives of the pri-vate sector, faith-based organizations, youth, and cultural and sporticons. These “Champions for Change” throughoutthe Caribbean will be PANCAP advocates for reducing stigma and dis-crimination against peo-ple living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA).Human rights viola-tions as a result of stig-ma and discrimination continue to impede theCaribbean’s response to the epidemic. In the con-text of travel restrictions, several countries still im-pose some form of travel restrictions on the entry, stay and residency of peo-ple based on their HIV status. On the issue of pre-vention and treatment, a recently-released study by UNAIDS on the sta-tus of HIV/AIDS in theCaribbean revealed prog-ress in treatment with ac- cess to ARVs, with more than half of the persons needing treatment get-ting it. This has resulted in a 40 per cent reduction in the number of AIDS-related deaths since 2001. But while indica-tive of the progress being made in reversing the ep-idemic, it is still far short of universal access. Prevention pro-grammes have not signif-icantly reduced the num-ber of new infections. The report notes that in the period between 2001 and 2008, new infections de-clined by less than five per cent. Further, trends in the epidemic in theCaribbean hide impor-tant and evolving dynam-ics, such as the increas-ing number of infections among females, and thedisparityamongcountries in this regard. According to the report, “…females living with HIV range from 26 per cent in the Bahamas to 59 per centin Belize, Guyana, andTrinidad and Tobago.