HIV/AIDS Response Gets Boost from Global Fund

The Global Fund has approved three million U.S. dollars in funding to Belize to advance the nation’s response to HIV/AIDS. Although the COVID pandemic has been dominating the news recently, the National AIDS Commission is still recording an average of two hundred and fifty cases annually with one hundred and ten deaths. With a new strategic plan, the Commission hopes to slash the death toll and increase its treatment success rate. News Five spoke to Enrique Romero, Executive Director at the National AIDS Commission at an official launch ceremony today in Belize City.

Enrique Romero

Enrique Romero, Executive Director, National AIDS Commission

“In 2019, 2020, the Global Fund Commission, they consulted to do an investment in the country. So, coming out of that assessment, the consultant identified several gaps that exist within the national response. So, those gaps were also highlighted in our new strategic plan. So those two documents, the assessment and the national strategic plan were the basis for the development of the proposal. So you will find that in the proposal. The recommendations coming out of those two documents are previously there. The bottom line is as a country and national response; we need to do something’s differently. It cannot be business as usual. As you hear from the presentations there are innovative strategies, maybe not innovative as in the sense that is new, because globally and regionally some of these have been implemented. But, they are being implemented in Belize for the first time. I just want to mention a few. The H.I.V. self testing, we did a pilot two weeks ago and our target was fifty persons. We did eighty persons. We are going to do an analysis of the data to determine what the next step is. Basically, the next step is to scale it up, roll it out maybe in other districts country wide. We go from there. We also have the piloting of the pre-exposure prophylaxis and the non occupational exposure prophylaxis that should be taking over sometime in April. We also have index testing whereby you go into a facility and you are encouraged to bring your partner along to be tested. So, these are new initiatives that haven’t been done in Belize before.”