St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Denzil Douglas, has suggested that several key issues must be considered by Caribbean leaders and other stakeholders in developing a framework for reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence, and the associated stigma and discrimination, going forward. Key among these, he said, are: accelerated treatment and prevention regimes, activism, co-ordinated negotiations, sustainable financing mechanisms, and...

As it continues to strengthen the multi-sectoral response to HIV/AIDS infection rates in Jamaica, the Government has budgeted $506 million for the Transitional Funding Mechanism programme. As contained in the 2014/15 Estimates of Expenditure currently before the House of Representatives, existing gains consolidated, and activities scaled up to reduce transmission of new HIV infections, while mitigating the impact. The project,...

Persons most at risk for contracting HIV are being targeted under a United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded programme. As outlined in the 2014/15 Estimates of Expenditure, now before the House of Representatives, the HIV Prevalence in Most-at-Risk Population Reduced programme, which runs from October, 2009 to September, 2014, will this financial year receive $294.1 million. The objectives of...

In response to the issue of HIV and AIDS within the workplace, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) will be officially launching the National Policy on HIV and AIDS, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, in Kingston, on Monday, September 16, commencing at 6:30 p.m. Director of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH), at the Ministry, Robert Chung, informed JIS...

Health Minister, Hon. Dr. Fenton Ferguson, says that the Caribbean is in a good position to become the first region to achieve zero mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. “I know in the Caribbean, our countries have been moving seriously. We have made tremendous gains as it relates to mother-to-child (HIV) transmission,” Dr. Ferguson said. He was addressing the Joint...

Jamaica has been selected to be part of an elite group of countries to spearhead a campaign aimed at uniting the world in eliminating HIV and AIDS among children. A project of the United Nations Children's Fund, the five-year campaign, which will be launched on October 25, is designed to sensitise the global community about the pandemic and how it...

Twenty-six year old Michelle was elated. She was about to join her husband in the United States. All that was left was the results from the medical test. But her joy soon turned to sorrow as her medical showed that she was HIV positive. “When I went to pick up my medical and I was told that I was HIV...