Last week, Min­is­ter of Health Dr Fuad Khan an­nounced that the in­ci­dence of HIV cas­es had dropped by 25 per cent. From 2008 to 2011, new cas­es re­port­ed dropped from 1,400 to 1,077, re­duc­ing re­port­ed di­ag­noses from four per day to three.

Dr Khan hopes to re­duce the fig­ure to two cas­es per day by 2015, which would bring the lo­cal tal­ly of new re­port­ed cas­es of HIV in­to align­ment with the cur­rent glob­al ex­pe­ri­ence.

The lo­cal rate of HIV in­fec­tion had flared in the news re­cent­ly af­ter Trinidad-born singer Nic­ki Mi­naj told the UK Guardian that T&T had 250,000 peo­ple liv­ing with Aids. That prompt­ed Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to is­sue a for­mal state­ment, plac­ing the num­ber of those es­ti­mat­ed to be liv­ing with the virus at 22,787 or an in­ci­dence of 1.5 per cent of the pop­u­la­tion.

The Prime Min­is­ter fur­ther not­ed that her of­fice, UN­AIDS, re­lat­ed min­istries and de­part­ments and sev­er­al non­govern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions were "work­ing as­sid­u­ous­ly to en­sure that the cit­i­zens of T&T are ed­u­cat­ed on safe sex prac­tices and are sen­si­tised on the is­sue of HIV/Aids with a goal of re­duc­ing the stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion ex­pe­ri­enced by those liv­ing with HIV/Aids."

The suc­cess of those ini­tia­tives was salut­ed by Izo­la Gar­cia, T&T coun­try co-or­di­na­tor for UN­AIDS, who not­ed that while pre­ven­tion pro­grammes and poli­cies were do­ing well, there was a need to en­sure that these ef­forts were sus­tain­able.

Ms Gar­cia not­ed in Ju­ly that be­tween 1985 and 2010, 16 per cent of new­ly in­fect­ed per­sons were in the 15-24 age group, a clear in­di­ca­tor that our young peo­ple were sex­u­al­ly ac­tive and there was a clear need to share com­pre­hen­sive and rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion about sex­u­al­i­ty and the at­ten­dant risks to en­cour­age in­formed choic­es.

T&T has made sig­nif­i­cant strides in ex­pand­ing the reach and im­prov­ing the qual­i­ty of its ed­u­ca­tion ef­forts and the coun­try has in­vest­ed sen­si­bly and ad­mirably in pro­vid­ing rig­or­ous and read­i­ly avail­able pro­grammes of an­ti­retro­vi­ral treat­ment.

Be­tween 2006 and 2009, 68 per cent of new in­fec­tions were in the age group 20 to 49 and the pro­gramme of free an­ti­retro­vi­ral treat­ments is di­rect­ly re­spon­si­ble for en­sur­ing that more HIV-pos­i­tive peo­ple re­main ca­pa­ble of work­ing, bol­ster­ing the work­force and en­sur­ing self-re­liance and pride among those liv­ing with the virus.

In ad­di­tion, since 2010, T&T can be proud that no ba­bies have ac­quired HIV from moth­ers liv­ing with the virus since 2010 and more than 95 per cent of ex­pec­tant moth­ers at pub­lic health in­sti­tu­tions will­ing­ly do a screen­ing test that's cru­cial to ear­ly treat­ment.

These in­ter­ven­tions have been cru­cial to re­duc­ing the im­pact of HIV in­fec­tion in T&T, but there re­mains more still to be done in one of the most in­sid­i­ous ar­eas of HIV case man­age­ment, dis­crim­i­na­tion against those liv­ing with Aids.

With more HIV-pos­i­tive peo­ple able to re­turn to ac­tive and pro­duc­tive work, the need for per­va­sive ed­u­ca­tion and un­der­stand­ing of the virus and those who live with it is more crit­i­cal than ever to en­sure that all cit­i­zens of T&T can con­tribute with­out un­nec­es­sary prej­u­dice of their ca­pa­bil­i­ties.

On Sep­tem­ber 11, the Min­istry of Labour signed a MOU with 16 pri­vate and pub­lic-sec­tor or­gan­i­sa­tions to pro­mote the Na­tion­al Work­place Po­lice on HIV and Aids which is de­signed to ad­dress the spread, im­pact, and stig­ma of HIV and Aids in the work­ing en­vi­ron­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to Dale Enoch, chair­man of the Caribbean Ac­tion Re­source (CARE), which has been work­ing on HIV-re­lat­ed is­sues and pol­i­cy over the last 23 years, at­ti­tudes and aware­ness are not im­prov­ing quick­ly enough. Speak­ing at the or­gan­i­sa­tion's fund-rais­ing din­ner on No­vem­ber 18, Mr Enoch urged the Gov­ern­ment to be more proac­tive in its cam­paigns to man­age is­sues re­lat­ed to HIV and Aids.

"Talk is good; ac­tion is even bet­ter," he not­ed.