In the face of dwindling donor funds for HIV programmes, partners of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) on Thursday committed to implementing high impact, cost effective interventions that would sustain national and regional responses.
According to a press release from the Caricom Secretariat, the commitment was made at the fourth annual meeting of National AIDS Programme managers and key partners of PANCAP, which concluded on Thursday in Trinidad and Tobago.
It noted that the economic implications of sustaining Care and Treatment for All and access to affordable medicines and commodities were discussed. Strategies for operationalising new approaches for HIV prevention and treatment at the national level were agreed, and the need for the integration of HIV into health systems was reaffirmed as well as the cross-cutting role of civil society in the response to HIV, including service delivery and advocacy.
The release said the meeting’s participants were challenged to identify the national and regional guiding policies and actions needed to sustain an effective HIV response. They were also challenged to “fast track the end of the AIDS epidemic by 2030;” the current global economic environment and declining donor funds for HIV notwithstanding.
It was agreed that the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and congenital Syphilis was within the Caribbean’s reach, the release said, noting that Cuba was validated in 2015 as the first country in the world to achieve this target and 17 other countries in the region are working towards validation in 2016.
Meanwhile, the 2015 WHO guidelines for the use of antiretroviral drugs for the treatment and prevention of HIV were disseminated, and challenges and opportunities for their implementation identified. The release said too that strategies were defined, based on cost analysis, for the sustainability of care and treatment for all in the Caribbean.
PAHO’s Action Plan for the Control of HIV/STI 2016-2021 and the Caribbean Cooperation in Health (CCH) IV were also revised at the meeting, the release said, noting that the meeting was convened in collaboration with PAHO/WHO, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Caribbean Office and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Eighteen countries were represented.
PANCAP is a Caribbean regional partnership of governments, regional civil society organisations, regional institutions and organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies and contributing development partners.
