The Tribune

By JEFFARAH GIBSON

Tribune Features Writer

jgibson@tribunemedia.net

THE BATON is now in the hands of Dr Nikkiah Forbes who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table as the new director of the National HIV/AIDS Programme and Infectious Diseases. She intends to continue in the footsteps of her predecessor Dr Perry Gomez, in getting the Bahamas to zero.

Dr Forbes officially took over as director of the National HIV/AIDS Programme on November 11 and the transition has been smooth so far.

Under the direction of Dr Perry Gomez the National HIV Programme of the Bahamas had a major impact on decreasing the spread of the disease. HIV transmission rates in the Bahamas declined by more than 30 percent, HIV transmission from mother-to-child also decreased dramatically.

Over the years Dr Forbes worked closely with Dr Gomez. She is an American Academy of HIV Medicine HIV Specialist with a special interest is in infectious diseases. She currently practices general internal medicine and is an associate lecturer of the University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research.

Dr Forbes was trained formally at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine and the University of the West Indies School of Clinical Medicine and Research (SCMR) in Nassau, where she was the first to receive an honours in surgery.

Dr Forbes was also the first to receive the Dr Cecil Bethel Award for outstanding performance in the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery examinations. She obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree with a Major in Biology, minor in Chemistry from Barry University and was awarded an Outstanding Senior Award. Her residency was done in Internal Medicine at the University of the West Indies.

“I am honoured to be in this role and I stand on the shoulders of many talented people and that includes Dr Gomez who has done a tremendous job and Nurse Ruthmae Bain who was the first director of the programme.

“I think we have made real accomplishments in the last 20 plus years, since the first case was diagnosed. We are an international best practice for the prevention of mother to child transmission and that is really admirable and I think the team must be commended for that. We have a lot of innovative ways to get testing done and we have already made great gains, and it is important to build on that work going forward. The team that we have here is talented and they do a wonderful job every day in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” she said.

As the new director of the programme, Dr Forbes and the team will continue their efforts to get the Bahamas to zero. Getting to zero is the UNAIDS vision of zero new cases, zero stigma and discrimination and zero AIDS related deaths by 2015.

“I hope we achieve it and if we do that would be major in the lives of people who have HIV/AIDS. To achieve that is going to require everybody’s dedication to it. We can achieve that by eliminating mother to child transmission, we can try to become aware of our status between partner to partner.

Dr Forbes said one of the biggest challenges in getting to the zero is discrimination and stigma.

“We can fight for respect and equal treatment for all who are living with HIV/AIDS, we can stop discrimination and we can stop people from treating those with HIV/AIDS unfairly. If we can achieve this people can feel comfortable getting tested for HIV/AIDS, they can take care of their health,” she said.

Going forward Dr Forbes and the team will build on the work that has been done already, and implement more initiatives to encourage people to know their status.

“The team is very talented and the work that has been done is great already. I would want to build on testing and prevention while trying to reduce stigma. I really want to increase testing, and while having public outreaches to get the message out there, that this is something everyone is at risk for,” she said.