(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) More than 100 representatives of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) will meet for the Seventh Annual General Meeting of the Partnership on 25-26 October 2007 in Antigua and Barbuda.

In keeping with its theme: Universal Access by 2010: Ensuring Success, this seventh meeting will, through a consolidated report, examine the progress made in implementing the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework on HIV/AIDS (CRSF). In this context, the meeting will receive status reports on programmes relating to advocacy, policy development and legislation; care, treatment and support and prevention of mother-to-child transmission, among others.

Up for discussion also, are technical updates on recent innovations in the field of HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean. Among the updates are those from COIN (Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on a regional approach to intervention strategies with commercial sex workers and sustaining gains in the workplace response to HIV/AIDS, respectively.

A key highlight of this Seventh meeting is the Feature presentation by Prof. Peter Figueroa, Chief Epidemiologist, Jamaica, titled Universal Access by 2010: Bridging the Gaps, and the ensuing discussion by panelists on prevention, treatment and care and support in this context.

Under the chairmanship of PANCAP Coordinating Unit Director, Mr. Carl Browne, the opening ceremony of the meeting takes place on the evening of the 24th in the Hibiscus Room, Jolly Beach Resort. Among the speakers slated for this ceremony are: the Hon. Dr. Jerome Walcott, Minister of Health, Barbados, outgoing Chair of the RCM; the Hon. Jose Coye, Minister of Health, Belize, incoming Chair and the Hon. John Maginley, Minister of Health, Antigua. Mr. Michel Sidibe, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS and United Nations Assistant Secretary-General, will deliver the Feature Address.

PANCAP, established in 2001 and coordinated by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, is the regional mechanism responsible for coordinating the Caribbean’s response to HIV/AIDS pandemic.

For more details, visit www.pancap.org

Contact: pancap@caricom.org