From Iriejamradio

The Executive Director of the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS is visiting several Caribbean islands this month.

Michel Sidibé will first visit Barbados to hold talks with stakeholders, the Health Minister, the Ministry of Social Care, and chairperson of the National HIV/AIDS Commission Dr Wendy Sealy.

Discussions will be centered around the island’s progress toward ending its AIDS epidemic, as the organization believes that by making the political commitment and investments, Barbados could end AIDS as a public health threat within 15 years.

UNAIDS says Barbados has achieved remarkable gains in HIV prevention and treatment over the last decade, and leads the Caribbean in terms of the number of people living with HIV who remain healthy due to full treatment. Barbados is also in the process of being certified by

the World Health Organization, as having eliminated HIV transmission from mothers to children.

UNAIDS recently announced its “Fast-Track” approach to ending the AIDS epidemic by the year 2030. It’s targets to be achieved by that date include 90% of people living with HIV knowing their status; 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status being in treatment; and 90% of people in treatment having suppressed viral loads.

The term Viral load refers to the amount of HIV in a blood sample. The higher the viral load, the more HIV is present in the body, and thus a greater risk of becoming ill because of HIV.

Also on the UNAIDS visitation schedule is St. Kitts and Nevis, another Caribbean nation participating in the UNAIDS “Fast-Track” method. Recent data shows St. Kitts & Nevis is very much on track to achieving zero mother-to-child HIV transmission by the end of 2015.

Michel Sidibé, who will be making his second visit to the Caribbean, will next go to Jamaica, Cuba and Panama.

For more on this story go to: http://iriejamradio.com/un-aids-program-visits-the-caribbean-region/