Govt told to appoint unit for HIV/Aids response

The committee was replaced by the Interim HIV/Aids Agency which was severely impacted by the lack of leadership.

Delivering the FPA’s Report to the Nation at the Hilton Trinidad on Wednesday, former president Gerry Brooks said coordination of the National HIV Response had become increasingly complex with the adoption of challenging universal access targets, significant decreases in resources and funding modalities.

He said there was need to harmonise and align the activities of all stakeholders working in this area into one response– the national response.

The Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS) of 2011 showed that 27 per cent of young people ages 13-15 years had sexual intercourse, of which 62 per cent reported sexual initiation before the age 15.

TT’s adolescent birth rate for women ages 15-19 was 44.9 per cent per 1,000 women, while the Education Ministry in 2014 reported an average of 2,500 adolescent girls became pregnant each year in school.

In one hospital, the medical chief of staff (MCS) reported that there were 74 girls under the age 16 who gave birth at the hospital in 2015.

The MCS said there was the need to address contraceptives to prevent teenage pregnancy, which was acknowledged by the Education Ministry which noted that, “We know that there is a problem of sexual activity among our school children. We cannot hide the fact.” Brooks said with these statistics and high risk behaviour among young people, it continued to exacerbate vulnerability to HIV.

He said multiple partnerships were common among the 15-24 age group with 52 per cent of boys and 33 per cent of girls reporting more than one sexual partner in the last 12 months.

Transactional sex was also high among this group with 42 per cent reporting exchanging sex for gifts, favours or cash.

Brooks said there were an estimated 250,000 adults and children living with HIV in the Caribbean.

The prevalence rate for HIV among young people was estimated at .5 per cent for girls and .4 per cent for boys, and they accounted for about 60 per cent of all new infections in the Caribbean.

In TT, according to the 2014 Millennium Development Goals report, the adult HIV prevalence was 1.65 per cent with an increase in prevalence amongst young people 15-24 from 1.3 per cent in 2009 to 1.8 per cent in 2011.

Brooks also said that while the legal age of sexual consent for penetrative sex in TT was raised from 16 to 18 when the Children Act 2012 came into force on May 18, 2015, the country’s marriage laws allowed parents to enter their children into marriage from the age of 12 for girls and 14 for boys.

He said since the age of sexual consent was raised, underage youth who were sexually active have been shying away from seeking sexual and reproductive health services that they needed.

He said this was because they faced prosecution if they fell outside of the age exceptions provided at Section 20 of the Children act, 2012.

They were also liable to be reported to the police by those who were mandated to report sexual offences against minors under the Sexual Offences Act, including doctors, nurses, teachers and employers.

The FPA recommended putting into law 16 years as the age of consent to medical services, that guidelines be worked out for determining the Gillick Competence of a child, that is, finding out whether the child was sufficiently mature and intelligent to give valid consent for medical attention, and revising respective acts/protocols to allow medical personnel to provide sexual and reproductive health services to any Gillick-competent child with no requirement to report the child, and no fear of prosecution.

Touching on the sexual rights of (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people, Brooks said discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity was inhumane, wrong and subject to punishment as everyone had a right to health care.

Brooks also called on the Government to increase call to the Government to increase its subvention, which had not increased since 1990.

Brooks said investing in family planning could reap immediate health benefits and investment savings in the health and education sectors.