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| Minister of Health on Nevis the Hon. Hensley Daniel. |
CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (December 04, 2006) -- Minister of Health in the Nevis Island Administration the Hon. Hensley Daniel, made an urgent plea to the Nevisian public to sharpen their focus on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support in the face of cultural norms which he said promoted early sex, multi-sexual partners and the strong male and macho image which continue to drive the epidemic.
He made the call during a radio address in observance of World AIDS Day on Friday December 1, 2006.
He said though the Ministry of Health had given additional support and strengthened the HIV/AIDS response he was of the view that the most valuable option was abstinence.
"The Ministry of Health will give support to the formation of abstinence clubs. It must be put on the table as an option that can be pursued," he said and added, "if HIV/AIDS was not taken seriously, it can destroy the economic and social base of the society. We must pause as a society and begin to align our actions with our knowledge. It is expensive to treat HIV/AIDS and we certainly have to take on the broader issues of abstinence, behaviour change and condom use," he said.
The Health Minister urged all to borrow a concept from the legal profession which said that everyone should be proven innocent until proven guilty which could be likened to, everyone is HIV/AIDS positive until proven negative.
Mr. Daniel used the opportunity to refer to the United Nations 2006 report on the global AIDS epidemic which indicated despite the positive impact behavioural changes has had on reducing the incidence of AIDS, there was a total of 38.6 million people living with the virus.~~Adz:Right~~
He said women and youth continue to show a high incidence of HIV/AIDS and there appeared to be a disjunction between knowledge and behaviour.
The Caribbean, he said, had ranked second most infected place in the world and there were 330,000 persons living with HIV/AIDS, 220,000 of them were children under 15 years of age.
According to Mr. Daniel, AIDS continued to be the leading cause of death among adults in the world among adults 15-44 years yet inadequate HIV/AIDS surveillance still blurred the picture of epidemiological trends and unprotected heterosexual intercourse is the main method of transmission. Stigma and discrimination continued to impede efforts at prevention and treatment.
