Inter Press Service - June 25, 2001
Peter Richards

The religious bodies are holding to their belief that sex, the main transmitting agent for the deadly HIV virus, should not be encouraged outside the matrimonial bed, even though official figures show that the country has an estimated 17,000 HIV-positive persons and that most of them are not married.

Health officials admit that the figure could be much higher in this country of 1.3 million people, since most infected persons do not report or seek medical attention.

"We must be mindful that we must take practical steps to restrict the spread of this scourge," said Health Minister Hamza Rafeeq, who pointed out that lifting the restrictions should not be viewed as encouraging promiscuity.

"Government's decision, therefore, to deregulate the sale of condoms is one of the practical steps we have taken in this direction and is an effort to make them more accessible to the general public," he added.

Previously, it was illegal for condoms to be sold outside of registered pharmacies. Rafeeq said HIV-AIDS had the potential to reverse all "the gains made by the country."

The government has since announced a number of initiatives including the establishment of an AIDS ward at the Port of Spain General Hospital and the re-opening of a similar ward in San Fernando, in south Trinidad.

In addition, clinics for the diagnosis and treatment of HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases will be established at selected health centres throughout the country.

Rafeeq said a comprehensive strategic plan to manage HIV-AIDS will be developed by September and that the government will phase in the treatment of infected persons with anti-retroviral drugs.

The Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO), a national umbrella for religious groups, welcomed the government's initiatives to deal with the AIDS epidemic but parted ways with officials on the condom question.

"We live in a free country and everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and practices. My belief is that there should be no sex outside the matrimonial bed," said Nobel Khan, the IRO president.

Khan said the public should not be encouraged to use condoms indiscriminately and there should be no compromise on the issue of promiscuity. He added that once there is monogamy in marriage, HIV- AIDS will cease be an issue.

Presbyterian Moderator Rev. Winston Gopaul supported his views. "We would not subscribe to that kind of free-for-all distribution of condoms because we feel that is just going to intensify the permissiveness in the society."

"They should do the things people have been suggesting all the time, teach the people to be more responsible in their sexual behaviour," he added.

Callers to various radio and television talk shows, however, have accused religious figures of burying their heads in the sand.

"It's better for my sons to have condoms in their wallets or pockets and use them," said a woman who wished to be identified only as the mother of two teenagers. "It's a question of doing what you can to help them out. We have to face the reality that not all young people are going to be in favour of abstinence."

The government's decision to lift the restrictions on the sale of condoms coincides with the start on Wednesday of an 18-month Phase II trial of the HIV vaccine, ALVAC involving 40 volunteers.

The trials themselves have come under intense scrutiny and debate, even though a cabinet-appointed ethics committee recommended last year that they on condition that any volunteer who became infected should be provided with anti-retroviral drugs, better known as the 'cocktail' or 'triple therapy'.

Phillip Ayoung Chee, president of the San Fernando Hospital Doctors Association, has raised questions about the safety of the volunteers and voiced concern that Trinidad and Tobago was being used, along with other Third World countries, as a "dumping ground" for experimental therapies.

Health officials have insisted that the vaccine is completely safe. Courtenay Bartholomew, a professor at the Medical Research Foundation, which is conducting the trials, said the vaccine is a "genetically engineered coat of the AIDS virus" and could not infect the volunteers.

"There are 16,000 new infections every day in the world. If we could prevent those 16,000 new infections, it would be a major victory," said Bartholomew. AIDS research centres in Haiti, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago have been working in consortium to conduct tests of approved vaccines. UNAIDS, the joint UN agency coordinating work in the field, identified Trinidad and Tobago as one of nine countries where vaccine trials could be held because of its combination of high HIV incidence and strong scientific capability.

During the 18-month trial period, researchers will look for a particular response in the immune system of those who received the vaccine. That response will tell researchers whether Phase III trials - advanced tests of the efficacy of the vaccine - should be done, said health officials involved in the local trial.

According to the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), the Caribbean has the highest incidence of HIV and AIDS after sub- Saharan Africa.

"We need to improve national surveillance systems to provide more accurate and timely information on HIV trends, so we can determine the state of the epidemic and that will assist countries in planning and evaluating the disease," said Jones Madeira, a CAREC spokesman.

The non-governmental Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action said women were at risk of infection because of a "host of biological, social and economic factors," and that dealing with unprotected sex must be a priority throughout the Caribbean community. (END/IPS/CA/HE/pr/aa/01)
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