SENIOR MEDICAL OFFICER in the Ministry of Health, Anton Best, has disclosed that Barbados is close to achieving its targets for the HIV/AIDS treatment by 2020 given by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He made the point while speaking at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Caribbean Regional Office partner meetings on Tuesday at Hilton Barbados.
“This initiative speaks not only to the clinical benefits of antiretroviral therapy (ART), but also to the public health benefits where we realise that ART reduces transmission of the HIV virus. We have not achieved 90-90-90 (90 per cent) status thus far, but we are at 85 per cent or so in all areas toward targets. We have identified deficits and hopefully with our partners we could address those deficits in a timely manner,” he said.
In order for progress to be made in this regard, greater access to services for those infected needs to be reached, Best stated. (RA)
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