Public Health Ministry upping game in HIV fight

− special focus on adolescents, PMTCT

The Public Health Ministry is upping its fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), particularly among youth and women, Junior Public Health Minister, Dr Karen Cummings has said.

She reported that some 23 adolescents living with HIV benefited from a sexual and reproductive health workshop which targeted timely orientation in sexuality education. A collaborative effort with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has influenced the decision to have such workshops integrated in the programmed.

According to Dr Cummings, sexual and reproductive health sessions continue to be held in both primary and secondary schools across the country, including the Kuru Kuru and Santa Mission primary schools and St Mary’s Secondary School.

She said health information was also provided to adolescents at various outreaches and other activities throughout the year, including GuyExpo. Youth empowerment also formed part of the work done by the Adolescent Health Unit in 2016. Ninety-six juvenile detainees benefited when the Unit collaborated with the Caricom Youth Network in October for a youth empowerment project at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).

Meanwhile, the junior Health Minister said the “Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT)”of HIV has now become a programme to eliminate Mother to Child Transmission altogether. She said all mothers enrolling in Antenatal Clinics (ANC) are offered the HIV test as part of their care. Rapid testing of ANC mothers is also done on the labour and postnatal wards for those mothers who did not have HIV testing done.

In 2016, the first draft of the Country Report for the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission was submitted.

According to Dr Cummings, much emphasis was placed on training healthcare workers in 2016. PMTCT training was conducted for 22 persons in Region Five(Mahaica-Berbice), case tracking training for 28 persons, as well as dry blood spot testing for 18 persons.

Site visits were done to the Georgetown Public Hospital, New Amsterdam, Lethem, Matthew’s Ridge, Moruca and Port Kaituma Hospitals, as well as the Charity, Suddie, Skeldon, and West Demerara Regional Hospitals.

The Minister said the major challenges faced in the execution of this sub-programme in 2016 included the lack of integration of PMTCT into MCH at both central and regional levels and inadequate PMTCT services, especially in the hinterland regions due to inadequate human resources.

Meanwhile, the Safe Motherhood Strategy, the Minister said, aims at reducing the deaths and illnesses of women, children and families through a comprehensive approach commencing before pregnancy.

Curbing the maternal and neonatal mortality rate is high on the Ministry’s agenda and efforts continue to be made in this regard. Approval of an Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) loan for the improvement of maternal and neonatal health was granted in 2016 and will see the MCH department intensifying its efforts in this area in 2017.

In 2015, there were 17 recorded maternal deaths, while 2016 saw 12. This reduction, she said, can be attributed to the fact that there are more trained doctors in the public health system in the field of obstetrics. This has resulted in earlier diagnosis of complications.

To date, some 75 per cent of all Cuban-trained medical practitioners have been trained in ALARMS (Emergency Obstetrics Training). Forty more healthcare workers were trained in ALARMS in 2016.

The reduction in the number of maternal deaths can also be attributed to increased education and women being seen earlier in their pregnancy.