Dolly Stanford, a peer educator who has been active in the HIV/AIDS fight for 21 years was recognised for her services when the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) held an appreciation awards ceremony at Herdmanston Lodge on Friday.
Other staff members recognised by NAPS were Ray Chance, Leslyn Roberts, Totaram Hansraj, the Ministry of Health (MOH) Personnel Depart-ment and the MOH Finance Department. Keith Burrowes previous head of the Health Sector Develop-ment Unit received a special recognition award for his instrumental contributions against the HIV fight.
NAPS Director Dr Shanti Singh urged the staff to keep up the good work because without them Guyana would not have been one of the leading fighters against the disease in the Caribbean. Singh said from January to October 2014, 28,216 persons were tested for HIV at the 58 testing sites and 3,187 were of the key populations, defined as sex workers, clients of sex workers, bisexual and gay men.
She said 85% of persons affected with HIV are on the anti-retroviral treatment and expressed hope that HIV testing and treatments will be more readily available in all ten regions.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran said the efforts of the staff is the reason why HIV infected persons in Guyana can live a normal life and commended Singh and her team for their years of dedication. The minister said his ministry plans to inject more funds into NAPS and thanked international organisations like the USAID and the World Health Organisation for their continued support.
Recently, Guyana was recognised as one of the leading countries in the Caribbean on track to eliminate mother to child transmission, with only 1.6% of pregnant women passing on the virus to their offspring.
