UNAIDS Director challenges Guyana to realise end to AIDS

Aug 21, 2013 News

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The end of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is not merely a dream but rather it is a scientific proposal being touted by UNAIDS, even ahead of the associated 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda.
This is according to UNAIDS Country Director, Dr Roberto Brant Campos, as he delivered brief remarks at a dissemination meeting convened by the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) at Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown.
According to Dr Campos, the UN Family has in fact posed a challenged for countries around the world to start considering the possibility of realising an end to AIDS in this generation and

“not 200 years from now.”
But in order to achieve such an ambitious goal, he alluded to factors that must be taken into consideration. Among them, he listed the need for strong political commitments which will continue even until the post-2015 agenda. Dr Campos emphasised the importance of HIV staying in the political agenda in countries around the world, while noting that Guyana is certainly not an exception.
Additionally, the UN Country Director highlighted the need for adequate funding to sustain individual countries’ fight against the epidemic and the importance of sharing information and good quality data. And even as Dr Campos expressed appreciation that Guyana has made progress along the path of realising the end of AIDS, he lauded yesterday’s forum which was designed specifically to disseminate to stakeholders the state of the epidemic in Guyana.
“We support strongly this process of information sharing, because we think that it is essential for the future. It is not only to reflect on the past, but it is also essential to measure where we want to be in the future,” said Dr Campos.
Speaking to the modest gathering of stakeholders, NAPS’s Fiona Persaud in her attempt to explain the existing HIV Estimates, that were arrived at a UNAIDS workshop conducted in May 2013 in Trinidad, simultaneously sought to give clarity to a recorded prevalence in the disease. Based on the Estimates, it has been deduced that the prevalence of the disease has increased from 1.1 per cent in 2011 to 1.3 per cent last year.
According to Persaud, an increase in the prevalence of the HIV epidemic does not necessarily reflect a troubling situation, but is indicative of a vibrant treatment programme.  In fact this disclosure was one of the many that were extensively amplified and discussed yesterday.
Persaud noted that while the available data suggest that there has been an increase in the epidemic, “I think that we all need to understand what we mean by prevalence.”

Prevalence, according to her, speaks to all persons in the population infected with HIV, whether or not they have progressed to an advanced state of the disease, that is, AIDS.
She further simplified her explanation by using a diagram of a bucket containing water representing the total number of persons living with the disease in Guyana. The diagram also depicted a tap flowing, suspended above the bucket, which, according to Persaud, represent the new cases of infection being added to those already in existence.
“Once you have new infections they come into the bucket and therefore prevalence will go up,” said Persaud, who also underscored that the prevalence is also likely to have an output. And the output, she noted, occurs when the content of the bucket overflows which in fact represents those infected persons dying of AIDS.
However, in the case of Guyana, the output has proven to be rather small, thereby allowing for the prevalence rate to increase with the addition of new infections, added Persaud.
“So if people are not dying it means that the prevalence is still there; it is not moving or it will be increasing because you still have people who are infected…We want people to stay alive even if they are infected.”
“If our prevalence is 1.3 per cent, we are saying that the glass is half full, because people who are infected are still surviving,” Persaud said.
And with the HIV Estimates reflecting a mere .2 per cent increase in the prevalence of the epidemic, it can therefore be deduced that Guyana has been able to maintain a vibrant treatment and prevention programme.
However, even as the health sector seeks to embrace the UNAIDS vision of “zero HIV infection, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths,” Persaud noted that there is no guarantee that the ambitious objective will be realised overnight.
“We can’t have anyone in 2013, for instance, who will not be infected with HIV. We understand that people are going to be infected, they are going to come into that big bucket, but we are hoping that that bucket stays where it is and people don’t die from AIDS.”
Persaud further observed that the prevalence of the epidemic is not really an indication of how well a country is doing, but rather, the rate of new infections.
And in light of the available Estimates, Programmer Manager of NAPS, Dr Shanti Singh, said that efforts will be made to sustain focus on treatment and prevention, particularly targeting the key population at higher risk. These include those who fall within the category of Men who have sex with Men and Commercial Sex Workers.
“We have to ensure that our treatment programme remains as robust as it is…We have to maintain universal coverage and we need to make sure that the treatment options that we have are most robust and viable and that persons are using their treatment,” said Dr Singh.
Moreover, she emphasised that sustained moves will be made to use the available data as regularly as possible to guide the work of the national AIDS programme, coupled with the guidelines detailed in the recently launched HIVision 2020 Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan outlines the way forward for the national HIV fight for the next eight years.

 

 

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