policy, Health Minister Nelson Bascome has decided to hand the task over to the man who made the original call.

Mr. Bascome has appointed Michael Fox to spearhead efforts to create a national AIDS policy.

Mr. Fox is head of the Allan Vincent Smith Foundation, a local charity which offers advice and counselling on the deadly disease.

"I have asked Mr. Fox to go ahead and set up a committee to look at policy and ways to shape policy,'' Mr. Bascome said. "I have told him I will help if he needs people for the committee and down the road, if they need help in making certain the policy fits within the legislative framework.'' "Michael has a wealth of information on the topic and is enthusiastic about a policy being set up,'' he added.

It was Mr. Fox who called for a national AIDS policy after returning from a board meeting of the Caribbean Regional Network last year.

"At that meeting an official United Nations spokesperson addressed us,'' Mr.

Fox recalled. "Peggy McEvoy told us that if the top political people in a country do not buy into an AIDS policy, then there is no AIDS policy.

"She also told us that we have to keep serving it on the plate or else they won't eat it, and they won't even know it's on the menu.''