MINISTER OF Health, Horace Dalley, has challenged the international community to do more to improve access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.
The Minister's call came as he addressed a high-level meeting and comprehensive review of the progress achieved in realising the targets set out in the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, at the United Nations headquarters in New York on June 2.
Citing what he said was widespread recognition that the HIV/AIDS response must go beyond the 2010 Declaration of Commitment deadline and the expiraition of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015, Mr. Dalley said that, "exceptional global mobilisation will need to continue for at least the next generation".
MUCH HAS BEEN DONE
He pointed out that through the wide-ranging efforts of individual countries and the international community, much had been achieved in the five years since the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS.
The Minister said that Jamaica has developed a comprehensive response to the epidemic with the help of the Global Fund, placing 50 per cent of persons with HIV/AIDS on anti-retroviral treatment, while expanding prevention programmes among vulnerable groups of the population.
"Considerably more effort must be made by countries and the international community, if we are to move meaningfully towards universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care," Mr. Dalley stressed.
