From Caribbean News Now

KINGSTON, Jamaica — The United Nations secretary general’s special envoy for AIDS in the Caribbean, Dr John Edward Greene, and Latin America and Caribbean director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr César Núñez, visited Jamaica from April 4 to 5, 2016.

Over the two days the pair mett with government, civil society and other development partners to discuss the country’s progress towards ending AIDS as a public health threat, as well as Jamaica’s role in the high-level meeting on ending AIDS, scheduled for June 8 to 10 in New York.

The 2016 high-level meeting on ending AIDS is organised by the United Nations General Assembly. This year’s meeting will focus the world’s attention on the importance of a fast-track approach to the AIDS response over the next five years.

The UNAIDS fast-track approach aims to achieve ambitious targets by 2020, including:

• Fewer than 500,000 people newly infected with HIV;

• Fewer than 500,000 people dying from AIDS-related causes;

• Elimination of HIV-related discrimination.

Ending the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat will require global solidarity and partnership, especially in times of diverse and demanding challenges. Focus must remain strong and commitment to leaving no one behind and building a more sustainable world by 2030 must be unwavering.

The 90-90-90 targets are central to the fast track initiative — 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 90% of these people on treatment and 90% of people on treatment with an undetectable viral load.

Fast track will return on its investment by averting new HIV infections and dramatically reducing the long-term cost of treatment.

Jamaica has long played a key role in shaping the regional response to HIV and has achieved significant progress. According to ministry of health data, since 2000 new infections have decreased by 50%. In the last decade Jamaica achieved a 46% decline in AIDS-related deaths. Also over the last ten years, the rate of HIV transmission from mothers to their babies fell from 10% to under 2%. Currently seven in ten people living with HIV in the country know their status (72%).

During their two-day visit Greene and Núñez are scheduled to meet with the minister of health, Dr Christopher Tufton; minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, Kamina Johnson Smith; minister of justice, Delroy Chuck; executive director of the National Family Planning Board, Dr Denise Chevannes-Vogel and director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, Colin Bullock.

They will also meet with civil society and faith-based leaders to discuss opportunities and challenges as it relates to scaling up prevention, treatment and care services for people living with HIV and other key populations in Jamaica.

IMAGES:

Dr John Edward Greene
Dr César Núñez

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