activism still makes a difference
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The steamy tropical town of Port of Spain in Trinidad was the setting for a conference dominated by calls to improve access to anti-HIV treatments. The theme of the meeting was 'Celebrating Positive Lives', but the way in which HIV positive
people across the world are battling against unequal health care made
the conference much more political than any mere celebration.
The Caribbean has been largely ignored in the history of the epidemic,
despite having the second highest rate of HIV infections in the world,
after sub-Saharan Africa. This was the first international meeting on
Aids in the area and gave hundreds of people living with HIV across the
world the opportunity to come together in solidarity and learn from each
other.
However, the gap between what countries say they are doing to fight HIV
and what they are actually doing was startling. Whereas some countries
say they give access to treatment to everyone, the truth of this is far
different. Indeed, some of the richer
islands in the Caribbean lag behind much poorer ones in what they provide,
