it is also noticeable that while for both jamaica and st luda the dramatic fall in treatment costs caused the share of gdp lost to be reduced in the case of trinidad and tobago the opposite happened the downward effect of the fall in treatment costs was more than compensated for by the upward impact of the significant increase in the number of infected individuals the results of the study are summarised in table which shows hivaids negatively impacting on key macroeconomic variables