Scotiabank hosts ‘Regional Testing Day’
By Ryan Haas
Reporter-SKNVibes.com
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| Dr. Patrick Martin, Chief Medical Officer for St. Kitts-Nevis |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS-IN a ceremony held at the Ocean Terrace Inn yesterday(June 12th), representatives of the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Ministry of Health jointly announced that June 27th will officially be HIV/AIDS ‘Regional Testing Day’ at Scotiabank locations across the Caribbean.
Dimitrios Adamopoulos, Country Manager for Scotiabank announced that ‘Regional Testing Day’ will show Scotiabank’s commitment to “leadership in corporate responsibility.” He also stated that the public testing would help to “de-stigmatize the process of HIV/AIDS testing.”
Testing will take place at both the Fort Street and Bird Rock Scotiabank locations in St. Kitts, where tents will be set up to provide privacy for persons being tested. Counselors and medical staff will be on hand to assist with the testing procedures.
Dr. Kathleen Allen Ferdinand, Chair of the National Advisory HIV/AIDS Council praised Scotiabank’s initiative in sponsoring the testing day, and stated that helping people “know their status” is vital to stopping the spread of the disease in the Caribbean, which currently is only outranked in cases per capita by sub-Saharan Africa.
“Prevention of the disease is of the utmost importance, and the first step in prevention must be to know your status. Persons that test positive are then in a position to access life-saving medicine and make lifestyle changes that can prolong their years. They will also be in a position to protect those they care about by using condoms or abstaining from sexual intercourse.
“Persons who receive a confirmed negative result will be able to ask themselves, ‘how do I maintain this negative HIV status for the rest of my life?” said Ferdinand. She declared that a person knowing his/her status is able to make behavioral changes such as condom use, monogamy and abstinence, to continue protecting him or herself. ~~Adz:Right~~
The Chief Medical Officer for St. Kitts & Nevis, Dr. Patrick Martin affirmed that behavioral change is the most effective way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and knowing one’s status through events like ‘Regional Testing Day’ is an important first step toward the necessary change.
“The vector or carrier of HIV is our sexual behavior… [and] changing sexual behavior is not a simple matter because there is pleasure in sex,” stated Martin.
The CMO added that young persons aged 15-24 were proving to be a particularly difficult group to reach when it comes to behavioral change. Citing a 2005-2006 behavioral study, the doctor explained that of the participating young persons who were sexually active, “90% knew that condoms were protective against HIV, [but] only 16% consistently used them.”
Martin expressed hope that ‘Regional Test Day’ would add to the continued effort to “bring more youth into the knowledge loop.”
In closing, Martin said that the Ministry of Health was pleased to recommend business entities that “reinvest in our community such as Scotiabank is doing with Regional Testing Day”.
“The Ministry of Health acknowledges this inter-sectoral exercise as an indicator of achievement. We thank [Scotiabank] again for their partnership and support of our activities in health promotion and disease prevention and control,” the CMO said.
In addition to St. Kitts, Scotiabank will be holding ‘Regional Testing Day’ at their branches in Antigua, Anguilla, Dominica and St. Lucia. Adamopoulos stated that it will be the “first testing day of its kind in the Caribbean.”
