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Trinidad and Tobago in damage-control mode as tourism minister Cadiz seeks to correct wrong AIDS figures publicized by Nicki Minaj.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago, Monday, November 5, 2012 - Sometimes having a world-famous music star born in your country can backfire in unexpected ways as the Trinidad and Tobago government is learning after rapper Nicki Minaj announced internationally that more than 10 per cent of the twin-island republic is suffering with the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

According to reports in the Trinidad media, the Ministry of Tourism will soon embark on a public relations campaign to "correct" a statement made by the Trinidad-born rapper that 250,000 people were living with AIDS in the Caribbean country.

Tourism Minister Stephen Cadiz, now attending the World Travel Market in London, told the Trinidad Guardian in a telephone interview yesterday (November 4) that the statement was "obviously erroneous and has to be corrected."

Minaj made the comment in an interview with the UK Guardian last Thursday. She also said 40 per cent of local adolescents were not educated about HIV/AIDS. Minaj is the face of Mac Cosmetics' 2012 Viva Glam line of lipsticks. Viva Glam sales support the Mac AIDS Fund, a charity organisation providing grants to non-governmental organisations and community programmes focused on HIV/AIDS outreach.

The most recent country progress report submitted by the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) to UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS, said the estimated number of people living in Trinidad and Tobago with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2010 was 22,787.

Former technical director of the National Aids Co-ordinating Committee (NACC) Dr Amery Browne said yesterday the figure was actually closer to 25,000 people. He said the statistics about youth HIV/Aids education would be difficult to gather.

Cadiz said he was not "overly concerned" by the statement, adding that local HIV/Aids prevalence had never had a negative effect on tourism. He could not say when the public relations exercise would begin or what it would include. Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan lauded Minaj for her musical talents, but suggested she speak with Minister of State in the OPM, Rodger Samuel, who is responsible for the HIV/Aids portfolio in the OPM.