The Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment has do­nat­ed life-sav­ing an­ti­retro­vi­ral drugs to the Min­istry of Health val­ued at USD$250,000. The do­na­tion was made through the US Pres­i­dent’s Emer­gency Plan for AIDS Re­lief (PEP­FAR) Caribbean Re­gion­al Pro­gram.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the US Em­bassy:

The Unit­ed States Gov­ern­ment, through the U.S. Pres­i­dent’s Emer­gency Plan for AIDS Re­lief (PEP­FAR) Caribbean Re­gion­al Pro­gram, has hand­ed over life-sav­ing an­ti­retro­vi­ral drugs to the Min­istry of Health. Val­ued at USD$250,000, these drugs will sup­port peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

U.S. Chargé d’Af­faires Dave Schnier in do­nat­ing the med­ica­tion to Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh at the Min­istry’s Port of Spain of­fice said, “This do­na­tion re­it­er­ates the Unit­ed States’ en­dur­ing com­mit­ment to sup­port pub­lic health and to sup­port peo­ple liv­ing with HIV/AIDS. T

he do­na­tion al­so re­flects the strong and ro­bust part­ner­ship be­tween the U.S. gov­ern­ment, the Min­istry of Health, and the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go. It is our uni­fied and shared goal to at­tain epi­dem­ic con­trol and sur­pass the UN­AIDS 95-95-95 goals.”

The Joint Unit­ed Na­tions Pro­gram on HIV/AIDS (UN­AIDS) launched the 95-95-95 tar­gets in 2014 with the aim of di­ag­nos­ing 95 per­cent of all HIV-pos­i­tive in­di­vid­u­als, pro­vid­ing an­ti­retro­vi­ral ther­a­py (ART) for 95 per­cent of those di­ag­nosed, and achiev­ing vi­ral sup­pres­sion for 95 per­cent of those treat­ed by 2030.

The U.S. Em­bassy’s do­na­tion came as a re­sult of a long­stand­ing part­ner­ship be­tween the Min­istry of Health, the U.S. Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and
Pre­ven­tion (CDC), the State De­part­ment Glob­al AIDS Co­or­di­na­tor, and the U.S. Em­bassy.

Min­is­ter Deyals­ingh in ac­cept­ing the do­na­tion said, “This do­na­tion con­tin­ues to ce­ment and strength­en the un­shak­able bonds that ex­ist be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca.

The re­la­tion­ship is a strong one, it’s a good one, it’s a his­tor­i­cal one, stretch­ing back to pre-World War II days, when Trinidad and To­ba­go was a very im­por­tant place in the fight in World War II. I thank you very much on be­half of Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Kei­th Row­ley, the Cab­i­net, and the peo­ple, but most im­por­tant­ly, the com­mu­ni­ty of peo­ple liv­ing with HIV for this do­na­tion. I as­sure you that these drugs will reach the in­tend­ed tar­get and have the in­tend­ed out­come