CASTRIES, St Lucia — Strengthening health systems and integrating HIV and STIs services are critical to preventing mother to child transmission and this is the main focus of a three day special meeting of regional chief medical officers (CMOs) taking place in St Lucia from 19 to 21 March 2012.
In brief opening remarks from the director of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) Coordinating Unit, Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland, attention was drawn to the timeliness of the meeting, given the transition that is taking place in the health and development agenda of the region.
“We are about to embark on an era where Caribbean and South-South functional cooperation and regional solidarity are even more fundamental as countries strive to manage health systems with lesser and lesser external financial support,” the director said.Adding “many countries are now confronted with an HIV treatment mortgage as the number of persons on treatment increase and external funding becomes less,” she noted that the issues on the agenda could only serve to add value to the efforts of PANCAP thus far.
Dr Noreen Jack, senior advisor of the PAHO/WHO HIV Caribbean Office, the lead agency in the elimination initiative, in her brief remarks called on the region’s CMOs “to advocate for and discuss the path to the expansion of the Initiative and the technical supports required.”
The senior adviser urged CMOs to identify the key recommendations for the Caribbean region as it moves towards its goal.The three day meeting, in addition to receiving reports from regional support partners working on this aspect of the Caribbean’s HIV response, including PAHO, the Caribbean Regional Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) and the Caribbean Medical Laboratory Foundation (CMLF), will also refine a field guide and a regional monitoring strategy. These were developed to support the elimination initiative.
PANCAP is a regional partnership established by CARICOM heads of government in 2001 to respond to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean. The elimination of mother to child transmission is one of regional goods and services under priority area three of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS (CRSF).
Over the last four years the region has been making significant progress in implementing PMTC programmes with funding and technical support mobilized by PANCAP. The PANCAP tenth annual general meeting in 2010 agreed to eliminate HIV mother to child transmission by 2015.
