BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — A five-day international conference aimed at discussing the benefits of treatment as prevention as a new approach to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV opens in Barbados on Sunday.

The five day “expert summit” is being hosted by the Barbados-based Caribbean Cytometry and Analytical Society (CCAS) and brings together regional and international experts to explore the benefits of “treatment as prevention”.

The organisers said that treatment as prevention is a relatively new approach to antiretroviral therapy for people living with HIV.

“It is based on the finding that early and full treatment leading to viral suppression dramatically reduces the risk that someone living with HIV can pass it on to another person. The summit will explore how advocacy can keep pace with these medical advances as well as examine barriers to healthcare access.”

According to the organisers, Barbados, along with the rest of the global community, has committed to adopting a Fast-Track approach that would set it on course to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

Among the experts addressing the conference will be Dr César Núñez, UNAIDS Latin America and Caribbean Regional Support Team Director and Dr Deanna Kerrigan, Associate Professor of Health, Behaviour and Society at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Kerrigan will deliver the lecture entitled “Social and economic vulnerability of women. A nexus of risk”.