Addressing the second annual meeting of that grouping at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, he presented a progress report on PANCAP since its 2001 formation.

Greene said a postponement of investment in care, treatment and prevention on people living with AIDS would mean an exponential increase in resources, more hospital space and more human suffering, both on the part of the infected and their families and more loss of productive forces.

These things could happen because more young people, between the ages of 15 and 29 years, will be afflicted or die than needs be the case.

"More mothers will pass on the disease to their unborn children … a murderous prospect if there was one and our economies, as a whole, would be drastically affected by both the financial cost, human suffering and decline in a potentially vibrant workforce," he emphasised

Greene said their task, at this caucus ended yesterday, is, therefore, to pave the way for accelerating collective action.

He recalled that, 15 years ago, even before the formation of PANCAP, an early indication of the impending epidemic was given by Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), on the basis of surveillance.

Greene said the signal went generally unheeded, as many countries preferred to sweep the issue under the carpet while others still hoped that, by some magical incantation, the disease would evaporate itself.

But PANCAP, established in February 2001, brought with it, new hope and the vision was to mobilise the collective resources of the Caribbean region and the world to provide a unified approach and strategy for halting the spread of HIV/AIDS.

PANCAP has since achieved considerable breakthroughs, especially in the area of accelerating access to treatment care.

The body also successfully negotiated with pharmaceutical companies for cheaper anti-retroviral drugs in May this year, Greene reported.

He said negotiations are currently ongoing with the firms for mother-to-child transmission medicines to be delivered to parents free of charge.

Greene said, for those countries which still cannot afford to meet the cost, even after a 75 to 80 per cent cut reduced the cost to US$1,200 per annum per patient, CARICOM, in consultation with the negotiating team and sanctioned by the ‘Caucus of Health Ministers’ in Washington D.C. last month, decided to adopt a series of mechanisms.

These include:

· seeking support for subsidising the cost of drugs;

· coordinating the procurement and purchasing mechanism through Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and

· exploring further negotiations with research and development pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of generics, in an effort to achieve further price reductions.

Under PANCAP, there has been, as well, the strengthening of institutional response in the areas of:
· training, research, care and treatment and information
systems;

· the CARICOM/European Union Project through which the EU
funded a programme of work in the development and strengthening of capabilities in the delivery of research, training and human resource development and

· the Caribbean Regional AIDS Training Initiative (CHART), which places emphasis on skills building in HIV testing and counselling and is being developed in conjunction with CAREC, PAHO, University of the West Indies

(UWI) and Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC).

Greene said, spearheaded by CARICOM, PANCAP has been able to attract resources from the EU, (US$6.7M) for strengthening the Institutional Response to HIV/AIDS and that was followed by pledges from other sources.

He said the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), longstanding contributors to the HIV/AIDS fight, have funded professional posts within the organisational structure and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has promised similar assistance.

Greene said a study by the Health Economics Unit of UWI at its St Augustine Campus has indicated that an estimated US$300 annually would be required to meet what is needed in the battle against HIV/AIDS in the region.

Meanwhile, under the regional proposal to the Global Fund on accelerating the response to HIV/AIDS made in September, US$56M is requested for care and treatment, prevention and human rights.

According to Greene, since the inauguration of PANCAP in St Lucia last year November, membership has expanded to spawn 27 countries, 11 institutions and 12 donors, among them U.S. Secretary of State for Health, Mr. Tommy Thompson and the W. Bill Clinton Foundation.