There has been a 60 per cent decline in the number of new HIV cases from 2003 to 2011 for T&T but a 25.6 per cent drop from 2008 to 2011. This was the announcement made yesterday by Rodger Samuel, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister during an HIV Christmas concert at the Brian Lara Promenade, Port-of-Spain.
The concert, hosted by the Office of the Prime Minister was held in commemoration of World Aids Day, which is to be celebrated today globally. The theme for 2011 to 2015 is Getting to Zero-Zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero Aids related deaths. Samuel said T&T was experiencing a steady decline of new HIV cases, even though the figure peaked in 2003. The figure fell from 1,709 in 2003 to 1,077 in 2011.
"There was a 25.6 per cent reduction from 2008 to 2011 in the annual number of HIV cases recorded." But Samuel warned that while this was good news and the results were very encouraging for T&T, citizens must not become complacent. "The Millennium Development Goal set by United Nations is a minimum of 50 per cent reduction by 2015, so from a 2008 baseline, the results are very encouraging for T&T, but this should not be taken for granted."
He said collective efforts from the Government, private sector, non governmental organisations and citizens must be sustained in order to achieve the desirable results. Samuel noted that T&T was characterised as having a generalised epidemic with an estimated prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent. The reported data for the period 1983-2011, he said, showed that great strides have been made in the control of the epidemic.
However, the worldwide figure for people living with HIV and Aids stands at an estimated 34 million-up 17 per cent from 2001, Samuel said. Meanwhile, he said, new infections have fallen to 21 per cent between 1997 and 2010.
42 deaths for 2011
Samuel said the Government wants to continue to encourage those persons who are living with HIV and Aids to seek the requisite treatment as it would help in sustaining their lives. The number of reported Aids related deaths at the end of 2011 stood at 42.
He pointed out that over the period 2010-2011, the percentage of adults and children living with HIV and Aids receiving treatment through anti-retrovirals were 75 and 73.1 per cent respectively.
"This is encouraging because the 2015 target of universal access to HIV treatment is projected at a minimum of 80 per cent, but our aim is to have 100 per cent persons who are eligible for treatment to be on and adherent to their medication."
He said while this is very promising the country has some way to go in achieving zero deaths by 2015.
Samuel said despite these successes the country also still is some way off from achieving zero stigma and discrimination. However, he stated that the Government embarked on several initiatives including training and capacity building workshops in areas such as research, counseling, surveillance to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of the national response.
He said 16 companies so far have signed a memorandum of understanding for addressing HIV and Aids in the workplace with a focus on eliminating stigma and discrimination. More than 200 persons submitted to HIV testing yesterday, one official at the testing station said.