GREAT BAY:--- Margje Troost, Policy Worker at the HIV/AIDS Programme Management Team and General Practitioner Gerard van Osch will be traveling to Barbados to attend the PAHO meeting on the "Elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis" November 11-14, 2013.
"It is very important for St. Maarten to take part in these meetings, especially because we have been able to have and maintain 0 (zero) mother to child transmissions over the last few years and seeing the fact that we are an associate member of PAHO," said Minister of Public Health Social Development & Labor, Cornelius De Weever. "Participating in such meetings brings much experience to our participants and they can share our success as well, which eventually trickles down to the community and most importantly having the data is of utmost importance."
Caribbean countries have committed to the "Elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis" by 2015 and St. Maarten is also part of this. According to PAHO, many Caribbean countries and territories may have reached the targets for the achievement of Elimination and the Caribbean has the potential to be the first sub-region to achieve this status.
At the meeting participants will discuss the validation method and start preparing countries for participation in this process to enable the documentation in the Caribbean countries by 2015. At this technical meeting participants will be introduced to the global, regional and national validation processes, plan for adoption of the national processes for validation with timelines and technical supports required. In addition, participants will be updated on the status of the "Elimination Initiative in the Caribbean, and the recent global recommendations for the prevention of mother to child transmission.