Policy coming to regulate HIV/AIDS care specialists

The National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC) has said that licensing of health care professionals working in the field of HIV/AIDS may be included in policies dealing with comprehensive treatment and care of people infected with HIV/AIDS. The NACC issued a statement to Newsday dealing with the legislation, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS in TT in response to questions about statements made by director of the Medical Research Foundation, Prof Courtenay Bartholomew.

The NACC said its Treatment and Care Subcommittee, which is chaired by Chief Medical Officer in the Health Ministry, Rohit Doon, will be looking at policies currently affecting care and treatment with the aim of improving and building capacity. “These policies, international best practice suggests, will necessarily include recommendations for qualifying health care professionals specifically in the field of HIV/AIDS guided by research of local conditions.” The NACC said this may entail “crediting physicians who work in HIV/AIDS through a process that: physicians are licensed, they attend ongoing accredited medical education programmes, and have treated a certain number of patients within a specified time-frame.” NACC said efforts of this nature will ensure a standard of quality of health care that is provided to individuals with HIV/AIDS and to “assure the competency of health care providers.”

At Tuesday’s launch of the HIV/AIDS Health Sector Plan at Hilton Trinidad, Bartholomew highlighted his concerns about doctors treating patients with HIV/AIDS “without any knowledge or training in the field.” He referred to doctors who treated patients with two drugs and monotherapy instead of the required triple therapy, and misdiagnosis of patients by “pseudo specialists.” At the same forum Prof Bartholomew said the Law Commission must criminalise HIV/AIDS in certain circumstances. He gave the example of patients who know their HIV positive status and were still having unprotected sexual contacts. The NACC said it has been collaborating with the Ministry of the Attorney General and United Nations Development Programme to conduct a legislative assessment on HIV/AIDS and create a framework protecting the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and “other persons affected by the risk of HIV infection.”

The next phase of the project is drafting appropriate legislation to address HIV/AIDS in a comprehensive manner. The NACC said this is part of a regional project that has participation of many Caribbean neighbours. However, it said, “due care” must be taken to communicate to the entire society that this assessment does not translate that all persons living with HIV/AIDS should “somehow be regarded as potential criminals.” The NACC said the uninfected are all potential victims, and that laws should not cause people to think they do not need to protect themselves from contracting HIV/AIDS, because the law is there to protect them. “The reality is the vast majority of new infections in this country occur when persons willingly participate in unprotected sex with others with no prior determination of their HIV status.”

The National Assessment will be accompanied by an information and education campaign so as not to fuel further stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. “The legislative assessment will necessarily also address whether public health laws may be better suited than criminal laws to deal with individuals who knowingly and purposely transmit HIV.” The NACC stressed that the AG’s Ministry has already started its research to support this process.