According to UNAIDS, there were 230,000 adults and children living with HIV in the Caribbean in 2007, while AIDS has claimed 11,000 adult and child deaths. *Photo credit: www3.niaid.nih.gov

CASTRIES, St Lucia, CMC – St Lucia’s AIDS Action Foundation is worried that the issues of HIV and AIDS are being swept off the front burner when it comes to Caribbean health concerns although they are the leading causes of death among persons in the most productive age group.

The foundation’s executive director, Joan Didier, noted that increasingly Caribbean Health Ministers are focusing on chronic non-communicable diseases and violence. However, she said advocacy on HIV and AIDS concerns must continue, especially since they claim more lives among the region’s 25-44 year olds than any other sickness.

“So the onus is on civil society organisations like AIDS Action Foundation, and the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition, and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition to keep advocating for funds and to keep HIV/AIDS on the front burner.

“I think all of the countries in the region are in the process of winding up their World Bank grants and their Global Fund grants come to an end in August 2010. The question now is how do we move past that, so we have to continue to advocate,” Didier said.

She said in the continued advocacy, priority must be given to the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and to human rights, which would improve respecting the dignity of people living with the disease giving them access to health care and to employment.

According to UNAIDS, there were 230,000 adults and children living with HIV in the Caribbean in 2007, while AIDS has claimed 11,000 adult and child deaths.