PM: More UN medics for TT

UNITED NATIONS secretary general Kofi Annan declared yesterday that the world was not doing enough to combat the scourge of HIV/AIDS while Prime Minister Patrick Manning hinted at more United Nations Volunteer (UNV) doctors coming to Trinidad and Tobago and a greater involvement of the United Nations Development Programme in TT’s social sector.

Addressing a news conference at Whitehall yesterday on his first visit to TT as UN secretary general, Annan said: “I do not believe that the world community is doing enough about HIV/AIDS. It is a disease that spreads very fast, and it is a disease that is hitting men and women in their prime. It is hitting the younger people. “Today, in some parts of the world, women are more infected than men, and they are often the innocent and silent victims because of the irresponsible behaviour of men. “The cruellest of all transmissions is from mother to child where you have millions of orphans around the world today. Even if you look at it on the issue of the resources applied to it. We need to spend $10 billion globally by 2005 to tackle this disease. We are not near that, but it is not just money.”

Annan agreed with Manning about “the need to fight the stigma and the discrimination” associated with HIV/AIDS and stressed “the need for everyone to get involved from the top to street organisations.” The UN secretary general said he had planned to come to TT for some time, have a vacation and “at the end of it, have some discussions with the Prime Minister to catch up with developments here, and we have not been disappointed.”

Addressing the post-Cabinet news conference hours earlier at Whitehall, Manning said one of the key issues to be discussed with Annan was the presence of UNV doctors in TT, and it was “entirely possible” that more UNV doctors could be coming to TT in the very near future. “We have been seeking to modernise the health services, to implement the Health Sector Reform Programme (HSRP) which was started in 1995 when we were in Government, which has not been taken far enough. “In fact, it should have been completed a long time ago. We are now reorienting that programme and an essential part of it is satisfying the existing deficit of medical personnel in TT including doctors and nurses, some of which are already being provided by the UN Volunteer Programme,” he explained.

The total cost of the HSRP is $192 million with financing being supplied by the Inter-American Development Bank and locally to the amounts of $134 million and $58 million respectively. The financing for the HSRP was approved on July 10, 1996. The Prime Minister said he also discussed “further UNDP assistance to TT especially in the social sector” with Annan. Manning added that the discussions at Whitehall between Annan and himself will be continued over dinner at the Prime Minister’s Residence at La Fantasie, St Ann’s later in the evening.