Kamla: Govt not doing enough for AIDS

Despite claims that it has put $300 million into the battle against AIDS, Government has failed to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic locally, Siparia MP Kamla Persad-Bissessar said yesterday. In a message given on the occasion of World Aids Day, Persad-Bissessar noted the increasing vulnerability of women throughout the world to the fatal disease. She cited a UNAIDS report which stated that females account for 50 per- cent of infected persons between the ages of 15 and 49 years, who have the disease. The report also pointed out that female infection was higher in developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, the USA and the Caribbean, especially in Trinidad and Tobago, where women account for 50 per cent of HIV/AIDS cases.

The UNC MP stated that Amnesty International noted that a number of factors were responsible for these staggering statistics, among them were Government’s failure to fight discrimination and violence against women and to take steps to ensure the range of crucial health-related rights. “In Trinidad and Tobago it is no secret that violence against women is on the increase,” she said. Persad-Bissessar cited the work of heroic women’s groups and co-operatives such as the Cyril Ross Home. She said while Government provided anti-retroviral drugs, it did not pay for routine blood and liver tests, nor did it provide food, clothes, school expenses or transportation.

She added that according to Dr Raymond Noel, HIV/AIDS specialist and consultant in Tobago, the lack of proper monitoring, data-collecting and efficient treatment programmes were contributing to the spread of the disease locally. “This is a tragedy, when one considers that Government is experiencing a lucrative oil boom and seems to be wasting money on unnecessary spending,” she said. She added, “As I urge the country’s population and HIV/AIDS victims to know they are not alone in their fight, and I am calling on Government to move swiftly to remedy this situation by implementing the necessary social and legal reforms as well as utilising the necessary financial resources to address the spread of this deadly disease,” she stated.