Guyana widening access to HIV treatment to ease discrimination -Health Minister

Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 July 2024, 18:18 by Writer

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday announced that Guyana has embarked on a plan to make HIV (Human Immuno-deficiency Virus) treatment widely available at all health facilities in order to weed out fears of stigma and discrimination by infected persons going to special treatment centres.

“One of the things that we’re doing right now to address this problem is to make sure that we can offer care at any one our health centres anf for this we are training primary healthcare physicians to be able to offer care,” he said.

He made the announcement at the opening of a “National Judges’ Forum on HIV, Human Rights and the Law” which was co-hosted by Guyana’s Justice Education Institute, Supreme Court of Judicature, Judiciary Judicial Education Institute of Trinidad and Tobago and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Health Minister’s announcement was made against the backdrop of official figures showing that 94% of persons living with HIV know their status but 72% of them are on treatment and 87% of them are virally suppressed. He said fear of discrimination was the major cause of the “big discrepancy” of 22% between those who know their status and those on treatment although antiretrovirals are free and available at all clinics. “Part of the challenge that we have is stigma and discrimination because in a lot of the places where we offer care, over time the persons had become known and persons are afraid to come to these places for care,’ he said.

Dr Anthony said if patients have complications they would be referred to specialised clinics for additional treatment.

The Health Minister said going to the regular health centres would also allow them to be screened and treated for other sexually transmitted infections. He said persons were being checked for hepatitis B and C, the latter of which curative treatment once cost US$2,000 at private health facilities. He said so far the public health system has cured 42 persons with assistance from the Pan-American Health Organisation which is providing the treatment for US$120 per patient.