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St Lucia Shares Experience in Aids Fight
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St Lucia Shares Experience in Aids Fight
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Contact: Ayodele Hippolyte Wednesday, February 21, 2001 – A recent workshop in Grenada gave St. Lucia an opportunity to share with other OECS countries its experiences in preventing the transmission of the AIDS-causing HIV virus from infected mothers to their babies. Organized by the Caribbean Epidemiological Centre (CAREC), the workshop’s aim was helping OECS countries to develop a protocol for implementing a programme to stop the transmission of the HIV virus from infected mothers to babies. HIV positive mothers will receive medication under the programme. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Marcia Philbert-Jules, STD (Sexually Transmitted Diseases) Physician, Dr. Philip Atigre, and Principal Nursing Officer, Suzanna Jolie, represented St. Lucia at the workshop. St. Lucia already has a programme in place to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. It was set up in 1999 with the assistance of former heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman. Under this programme, 500 pregnant women have been tested so far, four of whom were found HIV positive and their babies were saved as a direct result of this intervention. Dr. Atigre said the workshop was an opportunity to build on the success of the programme and to share St. Lucia’s experience with other OECS countries which are beginning to implement their own prevention programmes. |
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