HIV-AIDS Cure News 2017: Officials Hope to Get Rid of Fear, the Stigma and Discrimination as It Holds Back Progress
Officials are worried that ignorance and fear are holding back their efforts in controlling the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as well as the stigma that comes with it.
This is what Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Regional Support Team for Latin America and the Caribbean Cesar Nunez expressed in an interview with the Caribbean Cytometry and Analytical Society (CCAS) via Barbados Today.
Critically, as a high-income country, Barbados has made these strides with relatively little international donor funding. In the context of a challenging economic climate, the Government of Barbados has committed to expanding the national AIDS response. That investment has put this island nation on track to end its AIDS epidemic.
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He went on to say that they are looking to "accelerate progress while ensuring that no one is left behind," which he described as "challenging but not impossible."
Our reality is that the potential impact of game-changing scientific advances is being undermined by ignorance, fear, shame, prejudice and exclusion.
Recognizing the issue, Nunez said that they are doing their best to reach as many people as possible especially "vulnerable" ones as they work on repelling the HIV/AIDS stigma and discrimination.
We have to uproot stigma and discrimination in our clinics and communities, hospitals and homes. And we must work to ensure that no one is left behind. This includes the young people whose rights to information and services we largely ignore. It includes the men who too often get diagnosed late and the women whose vulnerability is increased by violence or poverty.
This includes "groups we too often forget, disregard or marginalize" such as prisoners, migrant populations, people with disabilities, men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, homeless people, sex workers and transgender people.
The challenge comes with putting on treatment those who are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Barbados hopes that by 2030 they will reach their target, which is 90 percent of people with HIV know their status, 90 percent of those diagnosed are being treated while 90 percent of people on treatment are with undetectable viral load.
The country hopes to achieve this by getting rid of the stigma and providing a "more optimistic and more relevant" public health message.
