NEW HIV/AIDS THREAT

The diagnosing of a recently identified HIV strain which caused a rapid progression from HIV to AIDS in a New York man in his late 40s is both cause for concern and a realisation that not are only too many individuals carelessly indulging in unprotected sex, but with several different partners. What is frightening is that the New Yorker, who used a sexual stimulant, has admitted to not knowing all of the names of the persons with whom he had partnered. And while, only one case of the new strain — HIV (3-DCR HIV) — has been so far identified, nonetheless the strain remains, as indeed all other strains, a potential threat to the wider population.

Meanwhile, the discovery that the recently identified strain has been determined to be resistant to 19 of 20 anti-retroviral drugs is a frightening development which reveals the utter danger we face with respect to this scourge. It is not dissimilar to the problem which had surfaced in the 1980s, when scores of tuberculosis patients worldwide, stopped taking needed regular medication treatment after noting an improvement in their condition.

The subsequent resistant tuberculosis strains affecting the relevant patients, in all too many cases affected new patients and made the process not only of containment, but eradication all the more difficult. This means that in addition to targetting the sexually active population of those who have reached the age at which they are likely to be sexually active, there should be a mass communications drive to sensitise users of anti-retroviral drugs on the need for maintaining regular treatment and for protected sex. 

Any let up will pose not only a threat of the possibility of their developing resistant HIV  strains, but of passing the problem on to the wider community. The Technical Director of the National AIDS Coordinating Commitee, Dr Amery Browne, has emphasised the need for “secondary prevention.” This involved, Dr Browne pointed out, the counselling of patients on either abstaining from sexual intercourse or to protect themselves in every way possible. Yet despite this clearly sensible approach to sex, and with all the advice readily available, many persons with the disease pass it on to others either because of indifference or plain irresponsibility.

Trinidad and Tobago spends millions of dollars annually on AIDS prevention and/or on anti-retroviral drugs. There is the additional and difficult to quantify loss in man-hours, productivity at the work place, and productivity at secondary and tertiary schools.  The Public Relations campaigns waged by Government, whether by the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education, even though they continuously target a wide age range, are met with resistant strains of sheer stupidity and indifference on the part of all too many citizens.