UN Secretary-General Appoints Barbadian as Special AIDS Envoy

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed Pan American Health Organization Director Sir George Alleyne as his special envoy for HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean. Working closely with Caribbean leaders and UN team coordinators in several Caribbean countries, Alleyne will be responsible for Caribbean reports to the UN General Assembly special session on HIV/AIDS, officials said Friday. Alleyne recently completed his second four-year term as director of the Barbados-based Pan American Health Organization on January 31, after first becoming director on Feb. 1, 1995. It is unclear where Alleyne would be based or when he would start work. The Caribbean has the world's second highest HIV infection rate: An estimated 2 percent of its people, or 500,000, are HIV-positive, according to the Caribbean Task Force on HIV/AIDS. The statistics exclude Cuba, where treatment and prevention have kept infection rates low.

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