(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Achieving universal access, scaling up testing and counselling and defining a comprehensive care package among other issues, will be the focus of a workshop on 25-27 June 2007 in Saint Lucia. The workshop is convened by the CARICOM-coordinated Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) in collaboration with the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) and the World Bank.
Under the theme: Universal Access by 2010: Addressing the HIV Care and Treatment Gap in the Caribbean , the workshop will discuss and agree on strategies for enhancing access to testing and counselling as an entry point for both curative and preventive services. It will review strategic and programmatic information needed to inform scale-up strategies and to identify gaps and concrete action to reduce the treatment gap. Defining ways and approaches to address stigma and discrimination in the health sector is also on the agenda of this forum.
Participants to the workshop include regional health sector workers, representatives of CARICOM-PANCAP network, including the Caribbean Regional Network for People with HIV & AIDS (CRN+), the World Bank and the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI).
The workshop begins at 9 a.m. at the Cara Suites, with a brief opening ceremony in which the keynote address will be given by the Hon. Edmund Estephane, Minister of Health, Saint Lucia. Dr. Glenda Maynard, Director of CAREC will also launch the publication Caribbean Clinical Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents during the Opening Ceremony.
PANCAP is a network comprising governments, non-governmental agencies, the private sector, faith-based organization, donor agencies and people living with HIV & AIDS which was established in 2001. It was formed to scale up the number of partners and institutions involved in the fight against HIV & AIDS; increase the level of financial and human resources available; expand the geographical scope of the response and increase the global advocacy efforts for HIV & AIDS in the Caribbean.
