América Central recebe US$ 8 mi contra a Aids

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do Banco Mundial

WASHINGTON, March 29, 2005 — The World Bank Group’s Board of Directors approved today an $8 million grant from the International Development Association (IDA) to support the implementation of a regional program in Central America to prevent and control the spread of HIV/AIDS in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

"HIV/AIDS is an increasingly critical health issue in Central America which if unchecked has the potential to erode human welfare, socioeconomic progress, productivity and social cohesion," said Jane Armitage, the World Bank's country director for Central America. "This project builds on the strengths of regional cooperation in Central America on health issues by improving access to and equity of services for vulnerable groups."

The Regional HIV/AIDS Project will support the development of a regional strategy and action plan to prevent and control the HIV/AIDS epidemic, including prevention and management plans; as well as a focus on the promotion of human rights. It will also promote access to HIV testing, counseling and integrated treatment; an HIV/AIDS Regional Surveillance System; and the bulk purchase of antiretroviral drugs, lab tests and other related medical supplies.

Specifically, the project will support the following activities:

*Establish a regional laboratory to carry out specialized HIV and opportunistic infections testing, such as Tuberculosis, and conduct further research on testing technologies. This laboratory will also become the regional center for quality control of HIV/AIDS national laboratories and HIV-related supplies, and a specialized regional training center on HIV/AIDS related technologies.

*Develop an epidemiological surveillance system that will integrate country information and disseminate it throughout the region to enable a better characterization of the nature of the HIV/AIDS epidemics. Furthermore, this component will carry out regionally coordinated sentinel surveys among the most vulnerable groups (seasonal mobile workers, commercial sex workers, men who have sex with men, and Garifuna and Kuna ethnic communities), and use the Internet to disseminate statistics on prevalence, incidence and risk factors.

*Strengthen the regional response capacity by increasing the harmonization of legal and institutional frameworks needed to scale-up strategic interventions in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This component will also seek to strengthen leadership and political commitment to develop a Regional Action Plan with common policies and strategies for addressing the epidemic.

*Reduce the vulnerability of mobile populations to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (mainly truck drivers, seasonal workers, and commercial sex workers) through training programs, and by supporting new subprojects undertaken by NGOs.

"The project will support the ability of the Central America region to better address the HIV/AIDS epidemic by undertaking critical actions that are beyond the capability of individual countries," said Marcelo Bortman, World Bank task manager for the project.

Official adult HIV prevalence estimates are 1.6 percent in Honduras, 1.5 percent in Panama, 1 percent in Guatemala, 0.6 percent in El Salvador and Costa Rica, and 0.2 percent in Nicaragua.