Daily News Photo by SEAN McCOY Adelle Simmons, left, a policy advisor in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, at a VI HIV/AIDS Community Discussion on Monday at the St. Thomas UVI campus.

ST. THOMAS - Representatives from the White House heard recommendations for improving HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support services in the territory from residents Monday night.

Jeffrey Crowley, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, hosted the community discussion on the University of the Virgin Islands St. Thomas campus. The discussion was teleconferenced to the St. Croix campus as well.

Crowley said the perception is that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is under control in America, yet there are an estimated 56,000 new infections each year in this country.

"That is not an epidemic that is under control," he said.

Monday's discussion, which is part of the Obama administration's pledge to develop a national HIV/AIDS strategy, was one of 14 community discussions on HIV/AIDS being held across the country.

Crowley said the goal of the discussions is to hear recommendations from people to help craft a national HIV/AIDS policy. Specifically, the office wants to hear suggestions for reducing the number of HIV infections, increasing access to care and optimizing health outcomes and reducing HIV-related health disparities.

The Virgin Islands has one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS, per capita, in the nation. the cycle of stigma prevents people from getting tested, which means the disease continues to spread throughout the Virgin Islands.

At Monday's discussion, about a dozen people offered feedback and suggestions to the White House representatives, although many more turned out to listen.

Gloria Callwood, principal investigator and director of the Caribbean Exploratory Research Center, told the federal officials Monday that she is concerned by the poor response from physicians when she has approached them to offer HIV/AIDS training.

"The physicians in the Virgin Islands have just not seemed to be interested," she said.

She recommended that the White House include incentives for doctors and other health-care providers to learn more about the disease and begin to incorporate routine testing for HIV as part of their practice.

Taetia Phillips-Dorsett, a legislative researcher for Sen. Patrick Simeon Sprauve, brought up two major issues to the White House officials Monday. She said the structure of the case reporting form at the Department of Health leads to too many "unknowns" in the categories of race and ethnicity - which leads to incomplete and inaccurate data for the Virgin Islands.

For example, many people from the eastern Caribbean would not identify themselves as Black/African-American, so they will check the box for unknown. The same issue exists for people born in Africa, who may identify themselves as black, but not African-American, so they would not check that box.

Phillips-Dorsett said such data is used for writing grants and attracting services to the territory, so it is important that it be accurate.

She also suggested that federal grants for HIV/AIDS prevention and outreach programs be expanded to hire bilingual staff or translators to reach the Hispanic and other non-English speaking Virgin Islands residents.

Jason Henry, the Ryan White program coordinator at the Frederiksted Health Care Center, was one of the moderators of the discussion - along with Sherri Henigan of Women Together for Change.

Henry said the territory needs more involvement from government, beyond legislation and funding, to help get rid of stigma. For example, he said patients do not need to sign a separate disclosure form to take a blood pressure test, why must they do so to get an HIV test? It adds to stigma, he said.

Dr. Richard Olans, an infectious disease specialist for the V.I. Department of Health, said the federal government could help by encouraging governmental agencies and local nonprofits to work together. He said the grants from Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention often are too restrictive and prohibit collaboration.

Crowley and Adelle Simmons, a policy adviser in the White House Office of National HIV/AIDS Policy, arrived in the territory Saturday and met with local HIV/AIDS providers and advocates to learn about the territory's issues and concerns.

He said he found some similarities to other regions in the country, but the Virgin Islands has its own unique issues as well.

Stigma is the biggest roadblock to lowering the rate of infection in the territory, he said. Additionally, housing is needed for Virgin Islanders living with HIV or AIDS.

Crowley also said getting culturally relevant prevention programs are crucial in raising awareness of the disease.

"People relate to people like them," he said.

The discussions are just one mechanism the White House is using to develop the plan. The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS also will provide input, and public comments submitted to the Office of National AIDS Policy also will be taken into consideration.

The White House Office of National HIV/AIDS Policy will be accepting written comments until Friday. Submissions can be e-mailed to AIDSpolicy@who.eop.gov or on the website www.whitehouse.gov /administration/eop/onap/action.