Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday deemed the National AIDS Programme Secretariat’s (NAPS) national testing campaign a success, with preliminary results showing that some 26,600 persons were tested.
According to Minister Ramsammy, who spoke to reporters yesterday at a press briefing held at NAPS, there were some 400 testing sites set up in the ten administrative regions and he described this as a “major achievement.” He said “all regions responded in a positive and overwhelming way.”
Out of the number of persons tested, 82 were tested positive, accounting for 0.3% of the total number of persons tested. The minister stated that the small percentage of positive persons is an indication that the national programme is showing progress in keeping the rate down.
The minister said it is expected that the final tally would be at least a few hundred more as results are still expected from regions 7, 8 and 9. NAPS had originally set 20,000 as its target for testing.
Some 23,643 of the persons tested did so at the temporary sites and men, unlike recent years, accounted for more than half of the persons tested. The minister said that the fact that so many males responded is an indication that they understand the seriousness of the issue.
Ramsammy added that in earlier years the country did not even test 26,000 persons for an entire year. Giving a breakdown of the regions, he said Region One tested 152 persons, Two 759, Three 592, Four 12,102, Five, 544, Six 11, 076, Seven 152, Eight 88, Nine 62 and Ten 769.
Meanwhile, the minister singled out Region Six for special mention as the region tested almost 40% of the overall figure, with a large portion of residents responding to the call to be tested. Ramsammy said the region far exceeded the target it set for itself. The Ministry of Home Affairs, which had set up testing sites in police stations and other ministry compounds, was also mentioned by the minister as they tested 3,370 persons.
“That was a major achievement,” the minister said and thanked the ministry for supporting the week of testing. The business collation was also praised as 960 persons tested at the sites set up by businesses. The proud minister described the testing week as a “major success story.”
