| The Ministry of Health in collaboration with the National AIDS Programme Secretariat launched the National Week of Testing with a mini-health fair on Friday at the Bath Settlement Tarmac, West Coast Berbice. The theme for this year is “Confidential and Reliable: Get Tested Now!”Dr Oweoye Olufemi, Chief of Party GHARP II, lauded the “sound policies of the Ministry of Health in Guyana which has resulted in the reduction of stigma and ignorance and every other thing that mitigates the access to voluntary counseling and testing for HIV”.“Our resolve and openness of today likely portrays HIV as nothing more than a manageable chronic disease. This is another nail in the coffin of the last vestiges of real denial, stigma and fear”, he noted.He said that even if persons are tested positive for the deadly disease, there is hope. He reminded the gathering that the testing for HIV is confidential and reliable.Kaieteur News reporter,Wholesale China Jerseys, Leon Suseran was among those tested during the Launch of National Testing WeekMinister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, stated that HIV testing is just one of the things that the Ministry is urging people to do.“We want people to know their blood sugar levels, Body Mass Index (BMI), blood pressure. We want people to be more physically active and eat better, like fruits and vegetables and take their children to the health centre and get their vaccines”, he noted.He said how lucky persons are in Guyana since there are numerous health centres and hospitals “spread along the coast and even the riverain areas, and we must take advantage of that”. He said Guyanese must make use of those opportunities.“We also come to the people, so here we have the health fair…so between October 3 and October 7, I urge all of you to talk to your neighbours and friends, and tell them to go and get tested; know your HIV status, TB status, BMI, blood pressure, sugar levels, because if we can do that, it means we are showing we have personal responsibility, and you can be healthier and Guyana can be healthier”, Minister said.Dr Ramsammy said that the Ministry of Health has come a far way in the fight against HIV/AIDS. “If you look back more than 10 years ago, the prevalence of HIV in Guyana was between three and five per cent. At this present time, the prevalence is 1.3 per cent. That’s the official number demonstrating that we have done a remarkable job in the last decade in reducing HIV,” he noted.In 2000, he said there were about 800 pregnant women testing positive for HIV. “Now that has dropped to 150 every year, a dramatic reduction”, he posited.He also said that in 2000, there used be about 200 babies being born with HIV. This figure, he said, has dropped to about 5. “We are now trying to get to zero”, he noted.“In 2000, not a single person living with HIV was on treatment. Now we have close to 4,Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping,000 persons on treatment with the same medicine they use in developed countries.“In 2000, the only place you could get tested for HIV was in Georgetown. Now,NFL Jerseys Outlet, you can get tested virtually in every community, among NGO Groups, health centres and hospitals and we come in the community”, he said.The UNAIDS and UN Family, he said, have hailed Guyana’s programme and are using Guyana’s programme for a model for other developing countries.He credited Guyana’s “own vision and comprehensive strategy for the success”. Indeed, he said, more money has helped in the fight against HIV, but he credited “Guyana’s boldness, because in 2001, we had no money from any of the sources, but Guyana went ahead and all the programmes we are doing now we [had] announced then: universal access, prevention, diagnosis,China NFL Jerseys, treatment and care; and at that time, it was using our own resources—that is the major reason for our successes.“We did not accept the notion that because we are a poor country, we cannot implement a comprehensive programme, but we started to implement it and the resources that flowed afterwards helped us to accelerate the implementation.”National Testing Week will be observed nationally from October 3,Wholesale Jerseys Group, 2011. Some 36,000 persons are being targeted for testing this year. The Ministry hopes to surpass that target. Last year, 35,711 persons were tested during the same week, representing some 10 per cent of Guyana’s population.UNAIDS has estimated that if in one year, Guyana should test 14 per cent of the population, then this means Guyana has sufficient testing. “And when you look at the whole year, we test more than 30 per cent of the adult population, more than twice what is the recommended level by the global organizations,” Ramsammy added.Among those that were first tested were the Minister of Health and Dr Olufemi. Persons also had access to blood sugar, blood pressure,Nike NFL Jerseys China, tuberculosis and other tests, free of cost. ……36,000 persons targetted |
