The United States will send health experts to help Caribbean governments fight the regional spread of HIV/AIDS, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said Saturday in Georgetown, Guyana. "We are here today to extend to you and the Caribbean, the hand of partnership as we fight" against AIDS, Thompson told more than 20 Caribbean health ministers and other officials at a one-day conference. The meeting, sponsored by the United States, focused on patient treatment and care, training health personnel, and collaboration among donor countries to fund programs. Thompson said experts from the CDC would travel to the Caribbean to work with regional officials.

The United States will help the Caribbean get funding from the Global HIV/AIDS Fund, to which the United States has so far pledged $500 million and proposes to give $1.1 billion next year, Thompson said. The US Agency for International Development has already offered $20 million to the Pan Caribbean Partnership to combat HIV/AIDS infection, he said.

"Most Caribbean countries are unable to provide adequate access to care and treatment," Denzil Douglas, prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis said, citing a lack of money, skills and technology. Although the infection rate in the United States has declined, it has increased in the Caribbean, Douglas said. People in the Caribbean have the world's second highest infection rate after sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 2 percent of people, or 500,000, are HIV-positive, according to the Caribbean Task Force on HIV/AIDS. The statistics include Cuba, where extensive treatment and prevention have kept infection rates low.

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