Poor TT data in UNAIDS report

TOO LITTLE is known about the state of the incurable disease AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago, revealed the online “2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic,” published on Tuesday by UNAIDS.

In a section on “country progress indicators” the report initially noted some successes in combating AIDS in Trinidad and Tobago.

For example under the “amount of national funds spent by governments from domestic sources for AIDS,” Trinidad and Tobago sent US$5.9 million in 2004, up from US$3 million in 2002 and US$4.5 million in 2003. In addition, some 100 percent of TT households containing AIDS orphans receive public assistance.

However Trinidad and Tobago lacked information on many aspects of the epidemic locally.

For example under “Life-skills-based HIV Education in Schools” in the report no-one could say what percentage of our schools have teachers who have been trained in life skills-based HIV education and who taught it during the last year. This compares to 100 percent of schools in Dominica, 90 percent in Swaziland, 75 percent in Mexico, 60 percent in Kenya, and 22 percent in St Vincent. The percentage of large public and private companies which have HIV/AIDS workplace policies and programmes is a modest 11 percent in TT, compared to much higher figures for African countries like Malawi and Nigeria which are both on 47 percent, and Zambia on an impressive 80 percent.

No data was available for Trinidad and Tobago for the percentage of women and men with sexually transmitted infections at health care facilities who are appropriately diagnosed, treated and counselled.

Some 71 percent of HIV-positive pregnant women in Trinidad and Tobago receive treatment to combat mother-to-child transmission of the virus by getting a complete course of anti-retroviral prophylaxis. This figure is way ahead of most African countries of whom only three are similar or better.

Trinidad and Tobago is mid-range in the Caribbean, being behind Dominica (100 percent) and Barbados (90 percent), but ahead of St Vincent (61 percent), Antigua (50 percent) and St Lucia (20 percent). The figure for Germany, the only “high income country” quoted in the study, is 80 percent.

In Trinidad and Tobago some 97 percent of HIV-positive persons with advanced infection are receiving a complete course of a combination retroviral therapy, compared to Antigua (60 percent), Dominica (36 percent), St Vincent (100 percent).

Many countries lacked recent data and instead quoted 2003 figures, including Australia (53 percent), Qatar (64 percent), Serbia (26 percent), Peru (19 percent), Gambia (6.8 percent) and India (2 percent).

According to 2003 data, in Trinidad and Tobago some 33 percent of young women aged 15–24 had comprehensive HIV and AIDS knowledge, a figure very favourable to other countries.

The report showed that in 2003 zero percent of “donated” blood in Trinidad and Tobago had been screened for HIV, although the report also said that in 2005 some 100 percent of “transfused” blood was screened.

This suggests that unlike most countries which were listed as having a 100 percent screening of blood when it is donated, in Trinidad and Tobago the blood is only screened for HIV at the later stage when it is being transfused.

The report also measured the sexual habits of the populations of various countries which were deemed high-risk with respect to catching AIDS.

However Trinidad and Tobago was not included in this survey.