Representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently conducted a training on index testing for HIV programme coordinators and frontline workers.
CDC and NAPS representatives
The initiative involved 22 participants from the Ministry of Health, National AIDS Program Secretariat, and the NGO Positively United to Support Humanity, which represented eight of Guyana’s regions.
Index testing service is a highly effective approach to reach and test persons who may have been exposed to HIV through sexual exposure, needle sharing, or as biological children of females living with HIV.
As Guyana has achieved 94% of the first UNAIDS targets, identifying the new cases becomes more difficult. Therefore, improving case-finding strategies and shifting resources from community testing to focused testing is required. Index testing is a focused testing strategy that is a proven and effective approach.
This training serves to train and equip healthcare workers involved in HIV testing and counselling to be able to implement index testing, and to assist others to use this high-yield modality in a safe and ethical manner.
The training was part of the US$1.5 million funding increase announced earlier in 2021 through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme.
