World AIDS Day: Medical conference to update practitioners on HIV treatment, PrEP

A medical conference, organised in commemoration of World AIDS Day, is expected to update practitioners in Guyana on treatment guidelines and usage of the various medications to treat patients.
World AIDS Day is celebrated annually on December 1. This year, among the activities planned is a conference on December 4, updating practitioners on management of HIV patients.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony announced on Monday that experts will be here in Guyana to share their input from prestigious organisations within the Region and the United States.
He shared, “We will have experts coming from the United States, along with local experts who will be talking about updates and treatment of HIV. We will have topics such as updates on treatment guidelines, updates on preexposure prophylaxis, new techniques in mother to child prevention. We’re looking also at the management of TB, with persons who have HIV and TB coinfections.”
Presenters will come from institutions like the Mayo Clinic, the Pan American Health Organisation, National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) and Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS, (PANCAP).
“We would like to see doctors, nurses, other healthcare professionals and persons with a general interest in HIV medicine…There are lots of interesting topics for persons in this field.”
In Guyana, it is estimated that over 9000 persons are estimated to be living in Guyana with the virus. However, an alarming 2400 of them did not return for treatment after the pandemic struck. Last year, data showed that over 94 per cent of the persons living with HIV in Guyana know their status but only 70 per cent are on treatment with antiretrovirals and 87 per cent are virally suppressed.
The 2030 goal is to end the HIV epidemic: to have 95 per cent of people with HIV know their status, 95 per cent of persons on treatment and 95 per cent of patients on treatment virally suppressed. For 2021, only 71 new cases were reported.
Guyana is one of the first countries in the Region to have achieved the First 90.  It has also made significant progress in delivering PrEP to key populations; developing PrEP guidelines through NAPS; and training clinicians. PrEP is available at 15 public, private and CSO locations.
HIV self-testing was also in the pilot phase, and Guyana’s testing algorithm was validated. Kits can be accessed from four public, private and CSO locations.  In addition, the NAPS had signalled plans to scale up and make more sites accessible.