Bumps in Barbados’ anti-AIDS journey
By George Alleyne
Barbados is among the first
countries regionwide to halt
mother-to-child transmission
of HIV/AIDS, and moving along
with this remarkable achievement
are public education
and free medical treatment to
reduce the threat, but health
authorities still have reason to
sound alarm bells.
As the island joined other
countries in observing World
AIDS Day Saturday, Senior
Medical Health Officer, Dr.
Anton Best, said he believes
that Barbadian men comprise
a group under greatest threat
of infection, based mainly on
their promiscuous habits.
“More men are putting
themselves at risk and that
is why we regard men as a
vulnerable group — full stop.
Within that group, gay men
are very vulnerable to HIV; but
men in general are considered
to be very vulnerable to HIV,”
the Nation newspaper reported
Best stating Sunday.
Supporting his position, he
pointed to 2017 statistics which
revealed that of the 106 newly
diagnosed HIV cases, 74 were
men and 32 women.
Apart from male recklessness
Caribbean L 32 ife, December 13-19, 2019
in sexual copulation,
another source of worry is that
cases of HIV/AIDS in Barbados
have only marginally decreased
in the last 10 to 15 years.
“By now we should be seeing
less people becoming HIV positive.
… Of the people being
diagnosed, a lot of them are
being diagnosed late, which
means we are not getting to
the more vulnerable people
earlier.
“If we diagnose them earlier
from a public health standpoint,
it means we would be
able to get them into treatment
and reduce the likelihood of
them not only being ill, but
also being able to spread HIV,”
Dr. Best said.
Disappointment in the slim
reduction of HIV/AIDS cases
comes against the backdrop of
Barbados’ advances against the
disease over the years.
Barbados received kudos in
2015 from the UNAIDS Executive
Director, Dr. Michel Sidibe,
for the being the second country
in the region, behind Cuba,
to have eliminated mother-tochild
transmission of the illness.
Since the turn of the century
Barbados has made all
antiretroviral treatment for the
disease free. This was coupled
with intense public education.
That situation gave confidence
to then director of the
island’s AIDS laboratory, Dr.
Clive Landis to declare in 2016,
“there is no reason to have it in
this country; none whatsoever.
We have all of the drugs and
treatments available.”
Dr. Landis established that
the Ministry of Health has long
recognized that not only does
the quality of anti-retroviral
drugs — available for more
than a decade — have the ability
to treat the patient, but
that constant application of the
medication reduces the viral
load in infected persons so that
they are no longer infectious
and could live normal lives.
He nonetheless conceded,
“there are barriers keeping the
patient apart from the drugs.
“It is the diagnosis which
we need in the first place, and
then the linkage to care, and
what’s hindering that is fear
and stigma.”
He explained that mainly
for social reasons infected persons
are reluctant go for treatment
for fear infection with
this stigmatized disease may
be revealed in the small Barbados
community.
But fast-forward to 2019,
and Dr. Best is now contending
that added to the stigma, poverty
and ignorance are factors
inhibiting early treatment.
He said 36 percent of people
newly diagnosed with HIV were
at later stages of the disease
and they are from the lower
social economic class.
“They tend to be poor; they
tend to be less educated. Then
it makes you question what
access to health care do they
have. They may have some
information, but overall, these
people are vulnerable and that
is something that needs to be
taken into consideration.”
Dr. Clive Landis. Photo by George Alleyne
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