AIDS PROBLEM IN TOBAGO NOT THAT BAD

While conceding that no updated statistics were available, Secretary of Health/Social Services at the Tobago House of Assembly (THA), Aldington Spencer insisted Thursday that the AIDS situation in the island was not as bad as reported. “I don’t know of any statistics that (have) said that Tobago is the epicentre of the (AIDS) epidemic in Trinidad and Tobago,” Spencer asserted. “I know we have a problem in Tobago, let us talk about that, and that they are dealing with the problem.” 

The newly-appointed health secretary was responding to recent statements in Parliament that the problem of AIDS in Tobago was the highest in the country at Thursday’s post-THA executive council meeting press briefing. Spencer, however, admitted there was a need for more “concise data” to determine how serious the situation was in Tobago. He said a secretariat was being established specifically for this purpose and that Government had allocated $45 million to treat the reported AIDS epidemic on the island.

He told Newsday: “We are soon to bring on a staff that would be able to give us hard data as to how serious the problem is. We are in the process of recruiting the secretariat for the commission that would do that job.” Spencer added that the THA was awaiting the completion of an exercise being conducted by the office of the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) that would determine the remuneration package and terms and conditions of employment of such persons. He said this should be in place by month’s end. He said that HIV-infected persons in Tobago were receiving anti-retroviral treatment at the Health Promotion Clinic and that there were also two very active NGOs in the island — the Oasis Foundation and the Tobago AIDS Society — that cater to the needs of both infected persons and their loved ones.