To mark World AIDS Day, which was observed on Sunday, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) in partnership with newly established private clinic Midway Specialty Care Centre yesterday launched the Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) service to stop new HIV infections in Guyana.
The civil society-private sector partnership between the two entities was formalised yesterday with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during a launch at the Midway Specialty Care Centre at Carmichael Street, Georgetown.
PrEP is an HIV prevention approach where HIV-negative individuals use anti-HIV medication to reduce their risk of becoming infected if they are exposed to the virus. It can stop HIV from taking hold and spreading throughout the body.
Research shows that the once-daily pill reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by more than 90 per cent. Following research on its effectiveness, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014 recommended PrEP as an additional HIV prevention choice for groups, such as men who have sex with men and transgender women. This recommendation was extended to all groups in 2015.
Dr Ruth Ramos-Gonzalez, who is attached to the Midway Specialty Care Centre, yesterday said that the service was introduced after a series of intense deliberations between the two organisations.
“The two organisations are convinced that with the introduction of these services, that it would prevent those that are at substantial risk from acquiring the HIV infection,” she said.
Ramos-Gonzalez explained that Midway Specialty Care Centre and SASOD Guyana will be providing PrEP and Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) as part of combination prevention, which includes condoms and lube, STI screening and management, HIV testing and counselling, risk reduction management and harm reduction.
Other services, she added, include the provision of comprehensive support, consisting of adherence counselling, mental and emotional support and sexual and reproductive health services.
Ramos-Gonzalez explained that that initiative of the Ministry of Public Health is to have a collaboration between the private and public sector.
“…They have included the private sector to increase the amount of people who access the services in PrEP, seeing that they are many people in our community who are at high risk of acquiring HIV during different activities. So it’s in the goal of producing or eliminating transmission… and decreasing and eliminating the new infections. This initiative includes PrEP,” she said.
Ramos-Gonzalez further stated that the opportunity to offer the services through the private sector is a great one since there is a section of the population who would not like to access care at some of the public institutions for various reasons.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of SASOD, Joel Simpson, said presently PrEP is being offered by the government through a public/private partnership through seven doctors but only to serodiscordant couples (where one partner is infected by HIV and the other is not).
“Our initiative here goes beyond that by providing PrEP for anyone who thinks they are at substantial risk and people could self-assess their own risks but the part of the consultation services that we are providing and the counselling and so on is to help you to access whether you are at substantial risk,” Simpson explained.
Midway Specialty Care Centre is a non-profit clinic that is established to provide non-communicable and infectious disease care. It was founded by Dr Moti Ramgopal and treats some 6,000 patients in eight clinics across the United States of America (USA).
The services are not free of cost. They will be available at Midway Specialty Care Centre on weekdays beginning from next Monday.
Clinics will also be held every Saturday commencing from January 4th, 2020 at SASOD’s office and do not attract a consultation fee. “….Because we are trying to reach those who might not be able to afford all the services that will be available at the main clinic,” Simpson said.
Apart from Ramos-Gonzalez, the team of doctors at Midway Specialty Care Centre included Dr Ramgopal and Dr Frank Anthony.
