THE fear of speaking openly about sex and sexual behaviours in the Caribbean is a major factor in the growing number of HIV/AIDS infected persons across the region, says director of UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team Ernest Massiah.
It also affects the number of people who access treatment for the disease. Among the vulnerable groups are female sex workers, drug users, youth, and men who have sex with men.
But according to Massiah, the impediments to the rights to good health must be removed and societies learn to become more inclusive and accepting of all Caribbean citizens.
He insists that the attitudes — along with the criminalisation of certain sexual practises — must be changed in order to successfully address the disease
which has so far affected some 260,000 persons in the region.
“We are not getting there because we (the Caribbean) are not a society yet fully comfortable speaking openly and directly about sex and sexual behaviour,” he told the Observer during the XV111 International AIDS Conference being held here.
“We are still facing a problem of new infections and particularly amongst young people,” he said.
According to a national behavioural survey done in Jamaica, nearly half or 48 per cent of young men aged 15-24, and 15 per cent of young women, had more than one sexual partner.
Pointing to this year’s conference theme, ‘Rights here right now’, Massiah said the message must be reinforced that the right to good health is not a luxury, but a requirement.
“Therefore, we must do whatever we can for the social and economic well-being of our society and our people to achieve good health,” he said.
The UNAIDS official said having a healthy population makes very good economic sense as this means people can live longer, more productive lives.
In spite of the challenges, however, Massiah said the region had made amazing strides in universal access to HIV prevention treatment and care over the last 10 years.
“It is a laurel we can hold up but it is definitely not one we need to rest on,” he said.
Still, he lauded regional leaders for the role they have played in addressing the epidemic, noting that they have never lost interest in the health of the people.
“It is an expression of a very mature and sophisticated political apparatus dedicated to addressing this issue and I don’t think it (interest) is fading,” he said.
But in the context of limited resources and the inability to reap greater success in prevention efforts, Massiah said governments need to sharpen and refocus political support in identifying the new issues to be addressed.
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