Senator Aloun N'dombet Assamba (right), Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technlogy, takes a close look at a female condom on display at the launch of a public awareness campaign on AIDS prevention by the Peer Counselling Association of Jamaica (PCAJ) at the Hilton Hotel yesterday. Looking on are Shirley Slepak-Janes (left), a director of May Clare Corporation Limited, and Peer Counsellors Sandy Green (second left), Melanie Donaldson (centre) and Kawayana Anderson (second right). - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer AS THE HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to be a source of major national concern, a public awareness campaign to the public on issues relating to the spread of the disease has been launched by the Peer Counselling Association of Jamaica (PCAJ).
The campaign was launched under the theme "Preventing the Spread of HIV/AIDS is Everybody's Business ... We Care. Do You?" and was officially declared open by Senator Aloun N'dombet Assamba, Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Technology, on behalf of the PCAJ at a launch ceremony held at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, Knutsford Boulevard, in New Kingston, yesterday.
Giving the keynote address, the Senator said the AIDS epidemic was well established in Latin America and the Caribbean and was both in danger of spreading more quickly and more widely in the absence of effective responses in these parts of the world.
In Latin America, she noted, about 1.5 million people were living with the disease, while in the Caribbean the figure had reached 420,000 persons affected, adding that the adult HIV prevalence rate in the Caribbean was surpassed only by the rates experienced in the Sub-Saharan Africa, making the Caribbean the second most affected region in the world.
"These figures are most alarming, even more disturbing when we put a human face behind those figures. Preventing HIV/AIDS and providing adequate, affordable treatment and care to people living with the virus, therefore represent two of the biggest challenges facing us today", the senator said.
Meanwhile, speaking at the ceremony on behalf of the Ministry of Health, co-ordinator of the HIV/AIDS Prevention for that organisation, Faith Hamer, said that HIV/AIDS was rapidly chewing up the meagre resources and reducing the components of the productive sector of Caribbean states, adding that the disease was the leading cause of death for those in the reproductive age group between 15 and 44 in the islands.
Young people between 15 and 34 years accounted for 35 per cent of the total new reported AIDS caes in 2001, she said, making note of the fact the bulk of the workforce was made up of persons in this age group.
"HIV/AIDS is a developmental problem. It is no longer simply a health concern. Every employer, planner and economic forecaster needs to be a part of the HIV/AIDS prevention and care solution," she continued, adding that AIDS related illnesses and unexpected death among the productive sector was, wiping out profits and real earnings as a result of the need to re-train personnel, invest in new skills and the reduction in labour force.
"This series of unplanned events escalates family and company spending on health care, which collectively aggravates the nations ability to make economic ends meet," she noted.
The Executive Director of the PCAJ, Ricardo Bennett, said the campaign was being launched to "supplement and complement the work being done by the PCAJ at the community level" and the project involved the creation and dissemination of strategic messages using audio-visual and print media to reinforce the importance of HIV/AIDS prevention in Jamaica.
