By Erica James-King, Senior Staff Reporter
Forstmayr
WESTERN BUREAU:
AS JAMAICA continues to grapple the growing epidemic of HIV/AIDS, some major players in the island's tourist industry have decided to throw their support behind the war to combat the spread of the deadly virus.
In a bid to sensitise their employees to the threat, some hotels in western Jamaica are now implementing preventative and awareness measures. However, health experts believe that much more structured programmes and policies are needed at the hotel level to make a significant dent in the spread of the disease.
Calling on hotels to act as catalysts in the prevention and control of the virus, Dr. Janice Alexander, medical officer of health for St. James, recently identified continued ignorance, denial of the HIV epidemic; and a refusal to see the link between international travel and the HIV crisis as the three factors that continue to fuel the spread of the virus.
"We (the Health Ministry) have trained peer educators in some hotels," said Dr. Alexander, who acknowledged that some hotels have taken the matter of sensitisation of staff and guests more seriously than others. "There are some hotels which have established support funds for people who might have been affected by HIV/AIDS so that they can give them some kind of support for medication and so on."
Josef Forstmayr, president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA), has been involved with some of the HIV/AIDS awareness programmes and stakeholders consultations co-ordinated by the Health Ministry. The JHTA has also been giving its backing to programmes to counter HIV/AIDS. "As a rule, we generally work with the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association as a group and as individual hotels. That is an on-going process," said Dr. Alexander. "We are also working with them with regards to a national policy, as to how to deal with someone with HIV/AIDS in the workplace."
COMBATING THE VIRUS
Sandals Montego Bay, one of the hotels integrally involved in the battle to combat HIV/AIDS, has become quite proactive in the anti-AIDS struggle within recent times. According to general manager, Horace Peterkin, who is a vice-president of the JHTA, the hotel has always disseminated information to its staff on HIV/AIDS.
"Four months ago the thrust intensified and we now have a very comprehensive programme on HIV/AIDS," said Peterkin, in explaining the hotel's serious commitment to the process. The SuperClubs property, Hedonism II, has no "set programme in place on HIV/AIDS awareness and outreach", but disseminates information on the virus through its nurses' station, which operates 24 hours a day and is manned by three full-time nurses.
"If someone comes to the nurses with a suspected case of STD, they are counselled and referred to a doctor," said nurse Maureen Allen, a member of the medical team at Hedonism II. "We have doctors who are on call 24 hours per day. After the doctor begins treatment, the nurses are sometimes asked to monitor persons to ensure they adhere to the treatment."
