Backlog of 109 HIV test samples from babies finally cleared

Nov 06, 2020 News

The National Public Health Reference Lab

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health has managed to clear the backlog of 109 HIV test samples taken from babies that were left sitting in a lab for over a year. The disclosure was made by the Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony, during an interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI) this week.
“We’ve had some challenges with not having reagents to test babies; if their mothers are HIV positive, normally we’ll take a sample and test it in the lab to just make sure that these babies are not infected with HIV. For more than a year, we weren’t able to do those testing. We have now brought in all the reagents, we have started testing and we have cleared whatever backlog there was,” the Minister said.
It was also revealed that early detection of HIV in babies would enable proper treatment and the parents being notified of the child’s status from the onset.
Dr. Anthony had first addressed the backlog in September during his 2020 National Budget presentation. The Minister had expressed that the PPP administration was shocked when they discovered the test samples that had been left by the previous administration, sitting in the lab “with dust”.
In addition to that, it was found that no effort was made to carry out tests on the samples which resulted in mothers and the new government being hampered from knowing the status of those children – something that was a major concern for the parents and the health system.
According to the Minister, a technical team had to conduct assessments to see if the samples could still be tested. Since the backlog has been cleared, any child that has tested positive can now be identified and treated.
During his interview, Anthony also disclosed that the government had to acquire antiretroviral drugs (ARVs ), which are used to treat HIV patients. The Minister said that the drugs had to be sourced from Brazil and Suriname following a shortage that was also found upon the PPP administration taking office.
The government has already put in orders for the drugs, but the ones they sourced are expected to last by the time those that they ordered arrive. HIV kits that were also in short supply have been restocked. Approximately $3 billion in total has been spent recently to replenish the country’s drug supply.
Kaieteur News understands that Guyana was expected to be evaluated this year to see if the country made the criteria for the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV but that evaluation, of course, could not be executed due to the abandonment and backlog of the test samples, as previously explained by Dr. Anthony.

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