The Office of the Prime Minister, National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC), Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization hosted an HIV Combination Prevention Meeting with national partners in September 2018.

The main objective of the meeting was to strengthen and enhance the national capacity to provide comprehensive HIV/STIs services for adults and adolescents.

The Honourable Ayanna Webster-Roy, Minister of State in the Office of the Prime Minister in her feature address at the opening ceremony stated that “the empowerment of citizens to their sexual and reproductive health essentials, requires that we look at all the systems that need to be put in place to ensure that the policies, facilities, education, services, and community support are available to prevent and control the spread of HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Infections”.

She emphasized that everyone has a part to play and that all stakeholders can support the NACC to achieve its mandate to end AIDS by 2030 by reducing the population’s susceptibility to HIV and AIDS.

Dr. Eldonna Boisson, PAHO Country Representative stated that we know of the ambitious elimination goals for HIV/STI and that these goals require an accelerated response to HIV and STIs. She indicated that in order to achieve these goals, high-impact intervention, technologies and approaches were needed. She called for “focused actions tailored to the needs of key populations”.

Dr. Ayanna Sebro, Technical Director, NACC Secretariat in her address emphasized the need to “consider opportunities for the prevention of other sexually transmitted infections, gender-based violence, poverty, social determinants and other matters that affect the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago within one service”. She noted that this type of integrative approach is one that will not only benefit the clients but will also improve the efficiency of services.

Over three days, participants addressed the opportunities to collaborate, partner and create synergies to promote institutional innovation and effectiveness for service delivery, intervention, treatment and prevention of HIV and STIs. The Meeting agreed that collaboration is key to ensuring that the most vulnerable populations have access to HIV prevention.