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World AIDS Day 2009 Launch

Guyana responded in the late eighties, as the recognition was made that this was a public health issue affecting not only the health sector but all strata of the society and therefore prevention was equally important to treatment if not more. It was from since those early days that we have worked and responded on the premise of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support with adherence to the principles of human rights.

Twenty two years later reports an increasing survival rate among our patients with an enhanced quality of life and reduced morbidity, a consistently reducing antenatal prevalence with a decrease in the mother to child transmission rate to about 3%, and reduction in HIV rates among some of the most at risk populations.

Ladies and gentlemen the face of HIV has always been a young one. At the end of December 2007, children under 15 years of age accounted for 290,000 deaths world wide and 420,000 children were newly infected in 2007 with the HIV virus, with a vast majority through the mother to child transmission. In Guyana almost three percent of our HIV notified cases for in 2008, was between the ages of 15 – 19 and the vast majority of almost 82 percent between the ages of 20-49 years. The question is what proportion of that 82% among the 20-49 age group would have been infected at an earlier age?

The truth is we know that early adolescence, from the ages of 10 to 14, is a time when enduring patterns of healthy behaviour can be established, including postponing the onset of sexual activity, which can quell the spread of HIV/AIDS. Establishing healthy patterns from the start is easier than changing risky behaviours already entrenched and therefore according special priority to young people will result in an early change in behaviours and expectations and ultimately in HIV prevention and in overcoming HIV related stigma and discrimination.
Reducing infections among young people is a challenge, not unique to Guyana but indeed a global one. It is a challenge however that we should all face head on, since there is concrete evidence that in every country where HIV transmission has been reduced, reduction of rates among the youth had been spectacular.

This is obviously easier said than done. The National AIDS Programme attempts at any opportunity provided to work intensively with young people. This work study programme has provided us with one such opportunity. This is the second year of our participation and once more an intensive programme was planned. Students were exposed to ongoing HIV, STI and other health related education; students are exposed to volunteering as tomorrow they will be in the pediatric ward of Georgetown Hospital spending quality recreational time with the younger children on the ward. This year one key component of their work study exposure is their involvement in the put it on campaign. The put it on campaign was conceptualized around the winning calypso of 2009 of Roger Hinds better know as young Bill Rogers. The campaign will include the calypso, a mass media element through a TV advertisement and a radio announcement and additional supportive IEC materials. The campaign will take the form of edutainment and mobile team comprising of primarily young persons will be traveling to the communities across our sending the message of condom use for safe sex especially for young persons who are sexually active.

During the course of our proceedings this morning, you would be exposed to some elements of the campaign, and you have just heard the poem from Amy. As we launch this campaign today, I take the opportunity to thank everyone who have worked on this and will continue to do over the next month. Special thanks to Jennifer Ganesh, Young Bill Rogers and most of all to our bright and enthusiastic students. Thanks to the parents for allowing your children to spend this time with us.

I believe that this direct engagement of young people with the National AIDS Programme will achieve the objectives of Ministry of Education in preparing the students for the world of work. I am at the same time hopeful that this exposure would result in the reduction of new HIV infections among young people in our country and I therefore thank the Ministry of Education for providing us with this opportunity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Guyana has been fortunate in receiving significant financial and technical support. We have been blessed with a robust partnership and I take this opportunity to thank all of our partners for the support, financially, technically and otherwise. The commitment from our partners has been unwavering and was demonstrated once more over the last week during this difficult time of crisis in the life of the Ministry and for that I say special thanks. It is obvious that the gains in reversing the HIV epidemic have been as a result of a collective effort of which you are key and critical part.

Ladies and gentlemen a lot has been done and as you can see we are still continuing at an emergency pace. I encourage us all to not loose sight of the goal ahead, but instead to take our achievements in the context of the task in front of us. Lets stay focused and maintain the momentum, this is not the time for complacency, it is not the time to slack off.

Let us work together in ensuring

• that we are reaching the people that are most at risk

• that our mothers are not infected with HIV and if by chance they are that our babies are born healthy and free from the virus

• that people living with HIV will continue to have good quality of life
  

• that people living with HIV will contribute to the prevention of new infections through positive prevention.

• that our young people remain healthy and as the future of our country be therefore focused on the more important National duties.
  

Ladies and gentlemen, we have work to do.

In concluding, I thank each one of you for your contributions in this response. Thanks to the staff of the National AIDS Programme for staying together and for making a difference. Special thanks to Minister Ramsammy, for your unstinting guidance and for your dynamic leadership without which many of our successes would not have been possible.

Dr. Shanti Singh
Programme Manager
National AIDS Programme
Ministry of Health

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