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Guyana above regional statistics for treatment of HIV/AIDS

Mar 17, 2019 News

 

Recent statistics provided by the Ministry of Education indicate that Guyana has a higher percentage of its HIV+ population on treatment than the total percentage of the Caribbean region.
Of the 8,369 estimated to be infected, in 2018, Guyana successfully put 5,557 on treatment, 66 percent. The region has collectively reached 57 percent of all persons, estimated to be HIV+.
The statistics for the collective Caribbean region is approximately 73-57-40 of all people living with HIV, according to PANCAP.
The Public Health Ministry has credited Guyana’s success to a series of new initiatives implemented by the government, including ‘Treat All’.
Though Guyana’s HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) prevalence rate rose from 1.4 percent in 2014 to 1.7 percent in 2017, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Karen Campbell, said that this is not due to more people being infected, but more people living longer, due to treatment with Highly Active Anti Retroviral Therapy (HAART).
While this is seen as commendable, Guyana, like the regional collective, is behind the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 Targets. The targets are a hopeful set of goals that purport to have, by next year, 90 percent of all people living with HIV know their status; 90 percent of all people diagnosed with HIV receive sustained antiretroviral therapy; and 90 percent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy achieve viral suppression.
The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) commenced the Seventh Meeting of National AIDS Programme (NAP) Managers and Key Partners in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago last Monday, 22 months ahead of the 2020 deadline.
At that function, Aldora Robinson, National AIDS Programme (NAP) Managers Representative on the PANCAP Governance Bodies, said, “We cannot continue to do the same thing and expect different results. We need to come together, NAP Managers and civil society, with purpose and innovation to accomplish results necessary to close the gap of the 90-90-90 targets; building on the successes and gains already made.”
She implored managers to work more fervently to increase access to HIV and STI Testing for key populations, 50-year-olds and those who have retired.
Ms. Victoria Nibarger, PEPFAR Coordinator, Caribbean Regional Program, Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator and Health Diplomacy, Jamaica highlighted the recent case of a man living with HIV in London who had been “functionally cured” of HIV, following a bone marrow transplant from an HIV-resistant donor. She noted that more than 18 months have passed since the man last took ARVs, and there remains no trace of HIV in his blood. She said that it is a critical moment in the fight against HIV.

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