Matthew Chin

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

The di­rec­tor of the HIV/AIDS Co­or­di­nat­ing Unit of the Min­istry of Health, Dr Is­shad John, says there have been im­prove­ments on the rate of HIV in­fec­tions for the past five to ten years in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

How­ev­er, due to the lin­ger­ing ef­fects of COVID-19, there have been de­lays in ac­cess­ing med­ica­tion lo­cal­ly.

She said there are an es­ti­mat­ed 10,000 to 11,000 peo­ple liv­ing with HIV, and 7,000 con­firmed to be in care and re­ceiv­ing med­ica­tion.

She made the com­ment as the North West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty (NWRHA) trans­formed Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain in­to a health ex­po, in com­mem­o­ra­tion of World Aids Day.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic were pro­vid­ed free ac­cess to HIV test­ing and screen­ing for blood pres­sure, glu­cose and cho­les­terol. Ed­u­ca­tion­al brochures on safe sex prac­tices and the prop­er us­age of con­doms were al­so pro­vid­ed.

How­ev­er, de­spite the im­prove­ments in HIV in­fec­tion rates in the coun­try, Dr John con­fessed that the min­istry has been ex­pe­ri­enc­ing de­lays in HIV med­ica­tion de­liv­ery, caused by the lin­ger­ing eco­nom­ic im­pacts of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

“Of those in care, we have 6,000 per­sons on treat­ment and are vi­ral­ly sup­pressed. In terms of how [med­ica­tion] has been af­fect­ed, the sup­ply chain has been af­fect­ed in terms of de­lays in med­ica­tion ar­riv­ing to the coun­try, due to COVID-19,” she said.

Al­so at­tend­ing the event was NWRHA CEO An­tho­ny Blake, who urged cit­i­zens to sup­port and not shun those liv­ing with HIV.

“World Aids Day is a mo­ment for us to come to­geth­er as a glob­al com­mu­ni­ty to show sol­i­dar­i­ty with the mil­lions of peo­ple liv­ing with AIDS and HIV. It is a day to raise aware­ness, fight stig­ma, and demon­strate our sup­port for those af­fect­ed by the dis­ease. How­ev­er, there’s still much work to be done. It is cru­cial that we con­tin­ue to pri­ori­tise ed­u­ca­tion, ac­cess to test­ing and treat­ment, and the erad­i­ca­tion of dis­crim­i­na­tion,” he said.

In at­tempt­ing to com­bat the so­cial im­pacts caused by HIV, the min­istry stressed that a lack of so­cial sup­port for those di­ag­nosed with HIV con­tributes to poor ad­her­ence to med­ica­tion. The min­istry is al­so seek­ing to get peo­ple who may have left in-pa­tient care to re­turn. The NWRHA re­mind­ed the coun­try that HIV is still present and the nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions should be tak­en, in­clud­ing reg­u­lar test­ing.