GOVERNMENT HAS INJECTED an additional half-million dollars into the HIV/AIDS campaign.
Minister of Health John Boyce said yesterday that the injection for this financial year was approved because the Ministry of Finance “readily” realised that starting the new Treat All programme “would be an investment which would reduce health costs in the long term”.
Speaking at the official launch at the Ministry of Health, Boyce explained that Barbados was adopting the Treat All recommendation by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in September 2015 that all people living with HIV should start treatment as soon as possible after diagnosis.
The programme, which will see them receiving life-long treatment, was started in March with pregnant women. It was expanded to patients at the Ladymeade Reference Unit in October, and as of yesterday, would now be offered at facilities islandwide. (YB)
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