GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The Pan-Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) says it will hold a meeting in the United States on Wednesday to brief Caribbean governments and civil society ahead of the United Nations High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on Ending AIDS.

The three-day UN meeting, which also starts Wednesday, will focus on the required accelerated response over the next five years to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals.

PANCAP is a Caribbean regional partnership of governments, regional civil society organisations, regional institutions and organisations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, and contributing donor partners which was established on 14 February 2001.

The PANCAP meeting will be co-chaired by St Kitts and Nevis Minister of State with responsibility for Health, Wendy C Phipps, and Caricom Secretariat Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development, Dr Douglas Slater.

A Caricom statement said that speakers at the event will include St Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris, who is also the lead Caricom head with responsibility for Human Resource Development, Health and HIV and AIDS; the executive director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), Dr J Carolyn Gomes, and PANAP director, Dereck Springer.

The statement said that the UN meeting is emphasising the importance of accelerating the response to HIV over the next five years to set the world on course to end the epidemic by 2013, and has identified five themes.

“UNAIDS contends that adopting the Fast-Track focus on location and population, and reallocating resources to where they are most needed will ensure that the people most affected by HIV, have access to life-changing HIV prevention and treatment services.

“?In addition, Fast-Track Targets achieved on time would ensure that the estimated total resource needs would begin to fall by 2021. Without these front-loaded investments, the world risks prolonging the epidemic indefinitely,” the statement noted.

It said at the last meeting, world leaders set an ambitious treatment target of 15 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2015.

The statement said that through the collaborative efforts of Caricom-PANCAP, the Caribbean has seen significant achievements. Among them, the sharpest regional reduction in HIV incidence by 48.1 per cent from 27,000 in 2000 to 13,000 in 2014; declining AIDS-related deaths by 49 per cent from 18,000 deaths in 2000 to 8,800 deaths in 2014; antiretroviral coverage increased to 44 per cent from less than five per cent f the eligible population in 2001.

It saw also Cuba being the first country in the world to achieve elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV in 2015 with 10 others in the region poised to achieve elimination by July 2016.

“PANCAP believes that for the Caribbean to protect and sustain these gains, Caricom member states must join the rest of the world at this meeting to work together on a strong political declaration.

“One that will create the conditions needed, including continued funding to “Fast-Track” actions and end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Failure to mobilise the funds required to end AIDS will result in a reversal of the gains of the last 10 years. People who require treatment will not have access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs and people who need to know their HIV status will not have access to testing. The Caribbean region must therefore work collectively to protect and sustain our gains,” the statement noted.