World AIDS Day

by Minister of Health Luke Browne

I am heartened to see here today so many people who have distinguished themselves in the fight against HIV and AIDS. I extend to you my warmest and most heartfelt greetings. We all come here under one banner, because whatever our occupation, it is certainly true to say with respect to the struggle against HIV-AIDS that we are in this thing together.{{more}}

I could not allow the fact that I am still recovering from the flu, with all its various effects, to prevent me from being here today. Why must so temporary and transient a physical ailment prevent me from appearing among you in solidarity against a dreaded disease that has caused so much long-term pain, suffering and death? The eternal quest of mankind is to transmit a better world to each succeeding generation. Our success in that endeavour hinges to a large degree on our progress in fighting this disease.

We see the light of eradication at the end of the tunnel, and it is precisely in a moment like this that we should press forward with a most determined final push.

That is why we are here today on December 1, 2016 – World AIDS Day. We dedicate ourselves to that final push that would end this scourge for all time and contribute to the liberation of our people in an important way. Onward march without delay. As one of the themes says, “Take the Challenge, End AIDS.” Let us take that challenge and put our “Hands Up for #HIV Prevention.”

We have surely made progress in the fight against AIDS, but sometimes progress is not enough. We must set our sights firmly on the complete extermination of this dreaded disease from the face of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the face of the world – once and for all! We are getting there.

We have eliminated the mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphillis, subject to the validation of PAHO. I have received reports that the number of new HIV positive patients enrolled at the infectious disease clinic at the MCMH is at a record low. This does not necessarily put my heart at complete ease. I know fully well that the statistics don’t paint an unqualified picture. There is nothing in the facts to suggest that we should be resting on laurels. That approach would not only be complacent, but foolhardy.

We continue will bring the best of medical science to bear on this issue. We would continue to provide free blood work and access to anti-retroviral drugs, with the help of supporting agencies. Thankfully, in this battle, we have the benefit of an international coalition. We have a Global Fund set up by the wisdom of the United Nations, which is playing a leading role in financing our efforts.

As fate would have it, I currently serve at the helm of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS at this most definitive time when we are poised to secure a final triumph in this longstanding battle.

AIDS means us no good. When I was in secondary school, not so many moons ago, I wrote a poem entitled a message “From AIDS”

A killer that’s silent and deadly, always on patrol

Always looking for ways to capture a soul

Misguidance from friends brings them trotting my way

It’s true pleasure forever to me when you pain

With each person down the more power I gain

With the warmest of welcomes you sit in my lap

Oh too late you discover that it’s all a trap

Due time I will give you to mourn your mistake

And then I may tempt you to work for my sake

Work to take another’s life

And plunge their family into similar strife

Sweet is the sound of wailing mothers

Mourning for a fallen youth

I offer you death something you may fear

But packaged so sweetly that you may not care

The lines of this poem are sufficient to underscore the importance of beating back this disease.

The problem of AIDS is not just a problem of medical science. We can possibly make as much progress against this plague in the bedroom as we can make in the labs and medical centres.

There is something else to be said. In response to the HIV epidemic, we must also tackle stigma and discrimination. There is too much stigma associated with the disease. Someone who contracts HIV is not necessarily a bad person. They are guilty of no crime. They are our relatives and friends, our neighbours and other members of our community. They are not to be treated as the scum of the earth or the purveyors of vice and immorality. They need not walk the streets with their heads hanging in shame. Sex is a fact of life. We would have made a great leap forward if we succeed in losing the voices of the victims in this fight against AIDS. They might be most poignant and have the greatest resonance.

It is true that certain risky behaviours that increase the possibility of contracting this disease are still too widespread in some segments of our population. We must stamp them out. When we put our hands up for HIV prevention, let it be a vow to eliminate risky behaviours from our lives and at the same time bring about behavioural change in all around us.

I want to tell everyone suffering from HIV-AIDS today and by extension, all Vincentians, that just as it says on this pin on my shirt, there is hope. There is hope of a tomorrow without this plague, if we should stay the course. There is hope of a future free from this disease wherein our children will be able to talk about it as a dastardly thing of the past which weighed down on the spirit and productivity of their forebears.

Our gratitude flows like a boundless river to all those who are in the fight against AIDS, and who in that capacity are performing acts of unspeakable service to our nation that have a bearing on our country’s development.

As Minister of Health, I am prepared to spare no effort to put the final nail in the AIDS coffin. There is no alternative lest we want instead to bury more of our sons and daughters cut down too soon.

Hands Up AIDS, you are under arrest!