Last night, we told you about the first National HIV Prevention Summit being held by the National AIDS Commission. It is a 3 day event where health professionals and advocates come together in a forum to figure design effective interventions for at risk populations.
Today, 7News stopped in for day 1 of the summit, and we asked about the current effectiveness of the message from the organization, if it is really reaching the targeted population.
We also spoke with one of the Commission's international consultants who says that research points to a link between a higher percentage of HIV infections and the existence of sodomy laws.
Kent Klindera - Director, Foundation for Aids Research
"My organization takes research and applies that to advocacy record, to our investing in programs that are effective which we did a global study in eight countries. Guyana was the country that we used in this region actually to investigate and it was quite clear that with these laws like of same sex behavior; making it illegal, you see a much higher rate of HIV across the world. Where that actually that is an contributing factor because if you're encouraging people to get tested it is very hard for them to go get tested if they have to disclose to their doctor their sexual behavior and they may fear that the doctor may tell them, tell that to the police."
Reporter
"Doc, how do you respond that probably you are preaching to the converted?"
Dr. Martin Cuellar - National AIDS Commission Secretariat
"Among this crowd, well we are not preaching at all, really, this is think-tank where we're discussing new methodologies so as in the opening speech this morning stressed. This is time for all of our partners working in prevention to not assume that we are speaking to the converted but rather for us to turn a new leaf and start fresh looking at everything that we've been doing so far in prevention has only provided us with limited success. So now we are looking at completely revamping our approaches our thinking and our levels of prevention initiatives. So the whole purpose of this summit is for us to raise the bar in the standards and the quality and hopefully the effectiveness of our prevention initiatives."
The summit closes on Saturday.
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