$105M viral load testing machines benefitting 9000 HIV patients

Persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) can now seek enhanced care with the Health Ministry’s recent procurement of a $105 million viral load testing machine.
This updated machine, bought from Swiss biotech company Roche, allows medical practitioners to test the viral load of patients with HIV, thereby determining the amount of HIV present in a patient’s blood, how quickly the disease would progress, and how efficiently a patient is receiving treatment.
The viral load test usually goes alongside the CD4 test, which assesses the number of T cells in a patient’s blood.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony noted that this machine, now installed at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory in Georgetown, is an important component in the management of some 9000 HIV-positive patients.

“In the past, we were giving people antiretroviral therapy, but we weren’t sure what was the status of their viral load. So, this machine will definitely tell us how well they’re progressing, and whether they’re virally suppressed,” Dr Anthony said.
Viral suppression refers to the percentage of people with HIV who have less than 200 copies of HIV per millilitre of blood.
For several years now, affected persons have been unable to access these routine CD4 and viral load tests, leading Guyana to fall short of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) targets.
In 2020, UNAIDS released a set of targets, calling for 95 per cent of all people living with HIV to know their HIV status, 95 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy, and 95 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy to have viral suppression by 2025.
As at the end of 2022, Guyana had recorded 94 per cent of persons knowing their status and 76 per cent of persons who were in care, but only 28 per cent of persons who were virally suppressed.
Recognising the need to have universal viral load testing, this multi-million-dollar viral load testing machine was obtained following its approval in the 2023 Budget.
“[The medical professionals] have been working on it, and I am sure they are managing their patients well,” Minister Anthony has said.