Guyana’s success in HIV/ AIDS fight worth celebrating – USAID

TIMES INT'L
UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team Director Ernest Messiah in discussion with President Donald Ramotar and National AIDS Programme Secretariat Director Dr Shanti Singh

Guyana’s record achievements in the fight against HIV/ AIDS and concerns about curtailed donor funding were the highlight of discussions when UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team Director Ernest Messiah met President Donald Ramotar on Tuesday.
The two met at the Guyana International Conference Centre (GICC) in the company of Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran and National AIDS Programme Secretariat Director Dr Shanti Singh, as President Ramotar was wrapping up discussions with Guyana’s foreign missions.
The meeting noted that Guyana’s success story in the drastic reduction in cases of mother-to-child transmission is credited to the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme.
Guyana is ranked among more than 50 countries that have achieved a 25 per cent reduction in HIV prevalence in the last 10 years.
“There are some successes here that we need to really celebrate,” Messiah said in an invited comment to the Government Information Agency (GINA) after what he described as a good meeting with the president. “He (President Ramotar) is very clear about what should be done and how to move forward in securing the successes you have had don’t actually change and move back,”
Messiah said. Optimism was high that the prospect of collaboration between UNAIDS and Guyana looks bright, even as Messiah expressed concern about the “huge” decline in donor funding around the world.
The cutback in funding is largely attributed to the global financial crisis which has caused a number of countries to prioritise and in so doing, alter the scale of resources that they have been contributing.
The challenges ahead, Messiah explained, also include critical questions about sexual lifestyles particularly among the youth population, the group that is considered the most vulnerable.

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