Scaling Up the Fight against HIV
In 2003, the government of Jamaica successfully applied for Global Fund support to scale up existing efforts in the fight against the pandemic and to expand the national response to HIV/AIDS in the country. With the support of the Global Fund and other partners, the country has been able to launch more effective treatment efforts and has expanded its prevention programs. The Global Fund grant, worth over US$ 23 million over five years, targets specific communities such as youth, commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men, all of this underpinned by a drive to establish a national HIV/AIDS policy that reduces stigma and discrimination throughout society.
Jamaica recognizes the crucial role that access to antiretroviral therapy also plays in effective HIV prevention. Only when treatment and prevention efforts are integrated can the stigma of HIV infection be lessened and people be persuaded to come forward for testing. The Principal Recipient of the grant, the Jamaican Ministry of Health, uses a significant portion of the grant to provide antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV during the first two years, while making sure that everybody who started treatment will continue to receive it during the complete five-year lifetime of the grant. Up until now, close to 1,600 adults and children with advanced HIV have received antiretroviral therapy and this number continues to grow.
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