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He is the current Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Integration at the CARICOM Secretariat, having served in that post since September 2005, a release from the Secretariat said. He replaces Sir Edwin Carrington of Trinidad and Tobago.

Secretary-General-designate LaRocque, 56, in his reaction expressed his deep appreciation for the confidence reposed in him by the Heads of Government.

“I am humbled and privileged for this opportunity to continue my service to the Governments and people of the Caribbean Community. As we strive towards the goal of a Community For All, the confidence of the Heads of Government, the support of the people of the Community and the committed staff of the CARICOM Secretariat are vital in achieving that objective.”

During his tenure, he will oversee the continued push for a comprehensive regional public health agency and will guide Caricom countries into implementing better health policies for their citizens and other residents of the countries.

Source: http://www.caricom.org/jsp/pressreleases/press_releases_2011/pres289_11.jsp

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By Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Under Secretary-General of the United Nations

IAS 2011 offers a wonderful opportunity for the scientific community to share information and give the world the tools to reach our shared vision of Zero New HIV Infections, Zero Discrimination, and Zero AIDS-Related Deaths. These tools are not so far from our reach. Committed scientists, researchers and clinicians are achieving game-changing results that are revolutionizing HIV prevention, as well as HIV care and treatment. The old dichotomies between prevention and treatment no longer exist, as the science to support each is increasingly converging. We can expect further decreases in HIV stigma and discrimination as passionate advocates and activists, and in particular, people living with HIV, raise their voices and take charge of their health.

The scientific community has provided us with true breakthroughs this past year. Results from clinical trials have vastly widened our prevention tool-box, including oral pre-exposure prophylaxis and vaginal microbicides that reduce the risk of HIV transmission. Most recently, the extraordinary results of HPTN052, in which antiretrovirals used by people living with HIV dramatically reduced the risk of HIV transmission to their HIV-negative partners, give us further hope that we will continue to see reductions in the number of new HIV infections. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) will be working closely with scientific and community partners to understand how the results from this groundbreaking study can most effectively be implemented, and to advocate for this implementation, while at the same time ensuring that the rights of people living with HIV are protected.

Already last year, UNAIDS, WHO and other global and local partners, were exploring ways of effectively expanding access to antiretroviral treatment and launched the Treatment 2.0 initiative. Treatment 2.0 is a radically simplified treatment platform that will also produce benefits in preventing HIV transmission. The five pillars of Treatment 2.0:– optimized drug regimens, point of care and other simplified lab technologies, cost reductions, service delivery modifications and community mobilization – have work streams that are robustly reflected in the evidence-based accomplishments that will be reported at this conference.

The full posting is available at IAS 2011 http://blog.ias2011.org/post/2011/07/17/The-Path-to-a-World-without-HIV.aspx

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I came across what seemed like a really cool site this morning and wanted to share it with you. condomlessandcounting.com aims to show how fast the HIV network could potentially spread through your social network. After obtaining your own link, you the send it out to your network. As people click on the link they are ‘infected’. You see a graphical representation of the rate and reach of the virus. Sounds cool right? Is only I could get a link. After going to the website, I clicked on “identify yourself” and tried entering my ID to “see the damage”.

Except, I could not figure out what code the user is suppose to input. Maybe this only works if you’ve been infected. Meaning, I can only get a code after someone sends me a link. In any case, this is a good start to something that can be built upon. I am a proponent to helping people understand and visualize how diseases move through the community.

I should add that I do have an issue with language on the site. Many people who contact HIV are not engaging in “careless behavior”. This trivializes the very real issues on why certain people contract HIV. Studies have shown that even those with low risk behavior may be at higher risk for contracting HIV because of the dynamics of their sexual network and sexual behavior pattern.

Nevertheless, does anyone know how I can get a code? I would like to see this in action.

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“WHEN presented with the question, ‘what would you do if you find out that your spouse or child’s father has molested your child?’, many mothers’ instinctive response is ‘I would kill him!’ — instinctive because a protective mother hen can’t fathom the loss of her child’s innocence in that brutish way. But in reality, and when faced with the actual situation, this promise is rarely acted out. In fact, some mothers live in silent denial, others resent the child, some choose to blame the child, and depending on the age, the mother may even put the child out of the household. Still others will simply accept it.”

“She told me not to tell anyone and that she felt it was her fault because she did not get up when he was doing it, even though she told him to stop and turned away. That broke my heart. Here she was, struggling with the guilt and not talking to anyone about it.”

“Daddy touch me there”  from the Jamaican Observer is one of the best and most powerful articles I’ve read from across the region addressing child sexual abuse, particularly by a parent or someone in a parent role. More information is needed-more interventions-to encourage children to speak up about being abused. We need to let our children know that it’s safe to speak up, and that doing so is best for everyone. My main critique of the article is that the abuse survivors were mainly females. As much as there is stigma about child sexual abuse among out islands, there is much more concerning the abuse of young boys. Let’s encourage more reporters to focus on this area and to write the stories of young people–male or female–who oftentimes lack a voice.

The full article is available at : http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/allwoman/Daddy-touched-me-there_9046634#ixzz1RNagXKL8

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This past weekend, CARICOM members held the 32nd Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St. Kitts and Nevis. Regarding health, nothing new came out of the meeting, but here’s a quick recap, courtesy of Caricom’s Communique:

  • Heads of Government noted the progress made in the sector across the Community over the past ten years to improve the health and well-being of the people and to contribute to economic development of the Region.
  • Heads of Government welcomed the entry into force of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), establishing the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) which will have its Headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago. CARPHA is intended to advance the realization, embodied in the Nassau Declaration signed ten years ago (2001): the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region. In this regard, it is expected to highlight the opportunity costs of pursuing public health functions in a consolidated way, rather than as disparate entities, as existed until now, that duplicate efforts and dilute the public health objectives for which they were designed.
  • Heads of Government lauded the contribution of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP), which has earned the accolade of an international best practice by the UN in the fight against the disease and noted with satisfaction its achievements as the partnership celebrated this year, the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the PANCAP Commitment.
  • Heads of Government applauded the positive contribution of the Community led by PANCAP at the recent UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. They noted that among the major Caribbean regional commitments contained in the outcome document were the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, reducing AIDS-related maternal deaths by 2015 and the need to ensure that financial resources for prevention are targeted to evidence-based prevention measures.
  • Heads of Government welcomed the significant role being played by the Community in advocacy and preparation for the UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) scheduled for UN Headquarters, New York, USA 19-20 September 2011.
As I said before, nothing sexy here, just business.