Record 40,000 tested for HIV during National Testing Week

Over 40,000 persons were tested for HIV when the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) hosted National Week of Testing, according to Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy.  According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release, the figure represents a new record that has lifted Guyana’s ranking among the countries where adults know their status. A partial count has revealed that 41,578 persons were tested this year, compared with 35,771 tested during last year’s exercise.

“The breakdown of the figures shows that 52 percent of the target achieved for testing was females while 48 percent were males. Another significant achievement was the reduction in prevalence rate for the 41,000 tested was 0.6 percent,” Ramsammy said last Thursday. As a result, Guyana’s figures, using the UNAIDS formula, show a further one per cent reduction in the HIV prevalence rate.

“We started at a rate of 5 percent in 2005… and prior to that in the early 1990s it was estimated that