UNAIDS Director of Caribbean Regional Support Team, Dr Ernest Massiah has lauded Guyana’s efforts to protect children from HIV infection, particularly the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme which has been credited with causing a drastic reduction in such cases.
“There are some successes here that we need to really celebrate,” Massiah said in an invited comment to the Government Information Agency (GINA) after what he termed a “good” meeting with the president. He noted that President Donald Ramotar “is very clear about what should be done and how to move forward in securing the successes you have had.”
Guyana has been numbered among more than 50 countries that have achieved a 25 per cent reduction in HIV prevalence in the last 10 years, GINA said. The meeting was also optimistic about the prospect of collaboration between Guyana and UNAIDS, even as Massiah expressed concern about the “huge” decline in donor funding worldwide.
The cut back in funding is largely attributed to the global financial crisis which has caused several countries to alter the scale and flow of resources that they had made available in the past. Massiah also noted that critical questions about sexual lifestyles particularly among youth are among the challenges.
Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran and Director of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat Dr Shanti Singh also attended the meeting, which was hosted at the Guyana International Conference Centre.
