Inter Press Service - December 4, 2002
Peter Richards

A 23-year-old mother of one tells of her ordeal at a hospital here, after it was revealed that she had contracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

"After three days I realised that I was eating with the same utensils because they had a special mark on them," she says.

When she tried to put her dirty dishes on a trolley with others, a hospital worker "who is not supposed to know my status" told her to not put them there.

Since the disease was first reported here in 1983, health officials estimate that more than 17,000 people have been confirmed with HIV/AIDS.

The figure, they say, may be just the tip of the iceberg - 39,000 cases out of a population of 1.3 million would be a more accurate number, given the high incidence of under-reporting.

But in that time, attitudes towards people living with AIDS appear to have stagnated.

"It is high time for Trinidad and Tobago to sit up and take notice that, in the area of stigma and discrimination, in relation to AIDS victims, we have moved forward very little, if at all," said Minister for Social Services Christine Kangaloo.

"Trinidad and Tobago will go to war against AIDS and not (against) our people with AIDS," she added earlier this week.

Even the religious and business communities are discriminating, says Amery Browne, chairman of the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Community Action Resource (CARE).

In one case, a pastor told a young girl to stand before the entire church congregation and confess her HIV status. In another, a business sent all of its employees for HIV testing, warning them that they would be fired if they were found to be positive.

"We must open our minds to opportunities to learn more about HIV/AIDS, we must seek testing ourselves and we must respect people living with HIV," Browne said.

Kangaloo blamed such incidents on an "epidemic of fear", and said it was important now for authorities to "redesign education programmes, making them more relevant to our realities, fostering the respect of human rights and tolerance".

The government is providing almost 100 million dollars for a campaign against the disease, as well as signing on to a 25-million-dollar project on AIDS education funded by the World Bank.

But the words and promises did not reassure the 23-year-old mother, who, speaking at the launch of the 2002-2003 World AIDS campaign Dec. 1, blamed health care workers for contributing to the stigma and discrimination faced by HIV infected persons.

She recalled an instance when she attempted to lend a cup to a patient who had forgotten hers at home, but nurse stopped her.

"I thought to myself that those are educated persons who are supposed to know more about the disease than me, my family and my boyfriend, who are supposed to support me, yet they act like this," she said.

Browne says people living with the virus do not want pity but they want to be accorded the human rights that all people expect for themselves.

"They want the protection of equitable laws, they want to be accepted and loved by their families and they want people to realise that they can be an integral part of the solution to the epidemic."

He warned that discrimination was scaring many of people away from seeking testing. "Those affected the most become afraid to access care and counselling," he said.

Resident co-ordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) here, Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, said that HIV infected people were reluctant to participate in AIDS programmes because of the stigma and discrimination attached to the disease.

"We must take a bold hard look at the legislation that allows discrimination. We must have open-ended dialogue in our places of worship, work and school," she added.

The head of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Epidemology Centre (CAREC), James Hospedales warned that, "treating people living with HIV/AIDS as pariahs of society prevents them and others from coming forward for necessary counselling and care, drives the epidemic underground".

Studies done by CAREC in recent months have shown that fewer than 15 percent of people living with AIDS were receiving a proper package of care.

While drug programmes have advanced the treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS, policies must be enacted to end the "endemic discrimination," said Bilai Camara, head of CAREC's special programme on sexually transmitted infections.

"All our gains in the past 20 years will go to nought, including getting pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices of anti-retroviral drugs, if stigma and discrimination continue to be major determinants of HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean," he added.

CAREC estimates that more than 90,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in its 21-member countries in the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

But when the figures of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are included, the total could be as high as 500,000. (END/IPS/CA/HE/HD/PIR/ML/02) .

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