Narace: 77 percent fewer AIDS deaths

He told yesterday’s sitting of the Senate the country now has some 16,459 persons living with the HIV virus.

Last year, the number of HIV/AIDS deaths was less than a quarter of the number in 2001, according to figures he quoted.

Narace was at the time, responding in the Senate to a question from Opposition Senator Wade Mark about the number of people living with the virus, and how its spread was being curbed.

Citing his Ministry’s Surveillance Unit, Narace said, “Mortality from HIV decreased from 264 in 2001 to 62 in 2008, a decrease of 77 percent”.

He said the Regional Health Authorities (RHAs), working with Carec and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), operate 14 sites across the country doing same-day testing for HIV, which last year were used by 11,948 persons. Narace said the Government has given many resources to curb the spread of HIV. He recalled April, 2002, when there was free access to anti-retroviral therapy to treat all affected persons. “As of March 31, 2009, some 3,270 persons benefitted from the initiative,” he said.

The Ministry has registered new anti-HIV drugs and trained staff in storage of these drugs, rapid test-kits, and CD4 re-agents at the Central Medical Stores, and labs and pharmacies.

Narace said 95 percent of all pregnant women have been tested for the HIV virus at public pre-natal clinics, under the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) Programme.

“There has been a compliance in HIV testing at a rate of 95 percent, where approximately 15,625 mothers and 98 infants were tested for the virus in 2008”.

Infants suspected of being exposed to the virus, he said, were tested using the dried blood spot method from as young as six weeks after birth, and if needed, are then immediately treated with anti-retroviral medication and referred to support groups. Narace said the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC), in helping run the national response to HIV/AIDS, has employed HIV co-ordinators in eight key Ministries — Education, Social Development, National Security, Sport, Labour, Health, Community Development, and Tourism.

Some 21 persons were recently trained by the Tobago HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee to assist in the sister isle, he said.

He attributed a significant improvement in life expectancy to persons living with HIV/AIDS to the fact the population has access to safe and ethical testing, improved diagnosis and treatment, and anti-retroviral drugs.

Saying the Government’s strategy was to create and sustain a productive and healthy population, he said their strategies over the past seven years were now bearing fruit. Pledging to continue to do all necessary for the well-being of affected persons, Narace said, “A diagnosis of HIV/AIDS is no longer an automatic death sentence”.