The National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) has finalised the National Stakeholders Consultation on HIV 2020. This is according to NAPS Programme Director, Dr Shanti Singh.
Under the eight-year national strategic plan for HIV 2013-2020 (HIVision2020), there are five priority areas – coordination, prevention, care, treatment and support, and strategic information and integration, Dr Singh told Guyana Times International in an exclusive interview.
HIVision2020 will be rolled out shortly via three-year detailed operational plans. This would be done by the University of the West Indies’ health economics unit who are expected in Guyana on January 28 to commence working on this with the local team.
The strategic plan, Dr Singh added, is designed to place Guyana on a trajectory, to eliminate HIV, while reducing the social and economic impacts of the infection and AIDS and improving the lives of infected persons. NAPS is working assiduously to meet the March 31 deadline for submission of the estimated number of persons living with the virus for 2013.
Prevention
“We’ve seen an intensification of the work that has been done among the key population, that is among the female commercial sex workers and men who have sex with men; in 2013, we recommenced services to prisoners after a little gap.”
Dr Singh explained that prevention packages would have been made accessible countrywide in 2013, in addition to treatment and screening services formerly available only in Region Four. This is a huge achievement for NAPS, as it continues the 75 HIV counselling and testing sites across the country. Dr Singh noted that there was no national week of testing in 2013 in observance of World AIDS Day, owing to inclement weather conditions, but all regions offered the services continuously through their testing sites.
In another remarkable achievement, there was an estimated 98 percent coverage of pregnant HIV-infected women, while the 183 Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTC) sites are functional countrywide.
Treatment
In the area of treatment, the mobile units used to service the hinterland were handed over to the regions’ health facilities.
“That transition process showed a positive response in its growth and response from communities with support from REOs [regional executive officers] and health officers.”
She added that capacity building and training is ongoing to ensure sound, safe and quality treatment is being extended to all patients across the length and breadth of Guyana.
The director added that Guyana was recognised as one of the few countries in Latin America, where the population has universal access to treatment at a time when 70 percent of infected Guyanese were eligible. A second client satisfaction survey is to be completed in a few months and should be made available in mid 2014.
Guyana is on track to achieve many of its HIV-related goals; however, challenges that are surfacing daily are making it difficult to meet deadlines. Much progress has been made on achieving zero discrimination on HIV/AIDS.
In light of sex workers’ concerns about discrimination in treatment, Dr Singh said, “We have trained health workers, who are ready and willing to serve every human being.” She added that every person has the right to medical treatment, and health services are there for everyone.
