Health Minister  Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has urged local private sector entities to demonstrate unrelenting support for this year’s national testing week activities, noting that this is a necessity for Guyana to truly have national ownership of the event.
He delivered this charge last Wednesday at a meeting to install members of the National Steering Committee, which will undertake the largest public health initiative in Guyana – the 5th annual National Week of Testing, slated for November 22-26, 2010.
While the Ministry will continue to promote the drive aimed at encouraging new persons to know their HIV status, Minister Ramsammy appealed to the private sector to lend greater support.
He disclosed that one of the main challenges faced by the Ministry this year is the huge cost associated with hosting the National Week of Testing.
“As such, the call is greater this year for the private sector to come on board, more than before, since there has been reduced funding in this area,” the Minister noted.
He commended those agencies which have been continuously committed to the activity, and which have pledged their continued support. He expressed optimism that new agencies throughout the length and breadth of Guyana would come on board to lend support for the upcoming testing activity.
This year’s undertaking by the Ministry is by far the largest, involving more than 300 counsellors/testers and more than 200 other staff members across the country, involved in quality assurance, mobilization, logistics, procurement and coordination.
Last year close to 30,000 persons were tested countrywide.
In echoing Minister Ramsammy’s call to the private sector, Programme Manager of the National AIDS Programme Secretariat, Dr. Shanti Singh, highlighted the need for administrative regions throughout Guyana to take ownership of the testing being done in their respective regions.
She lauded the leadership shown by Region Six in 2009, where non-governmental, community-based, faith-based and grassroots organizations worked together with the Regional Health Authority to have more than 11,000 people tested.
Dr. Singh noted that areas such as Region Three could move testing into the ‘back-dam’ areas to achieve a greater number of persons tested this year.
The target set by the Health Minister this year is to test 30,000 people over the five-day period. To ensure that this is achieved, the Minister has established several sub-committees to address quality assurance for laboratory and counselling, procurement, data management, logistics, transportation, mobilization, public relations and meals.
Minister Ramsammy assured that quality assurance and confidentially continues to have high priority for National Week of Testing 2010. He emphasized that data collection and management are also very critical since information on the number of persons being tested for the first time plays a key role for future planning.
A new feature this year will be the development of a navigation protocol which will ensure that persons who test positive with HIV antibodies receive necessary treatment.
The National Week of Testing has, as its mandate, to encourage more people to know their HIV status and help erase stigma attached to getting tested.
This initiative, which has become an annual activity, represents another successful public health initiative for the Ministry of Health.
The first National Week of Testing, in 2006, saw just over 1000 persons getting tested.
Although the government of Guyana introduced Voluntary Counselling and Testing in the early 90s, as part of providing comprehensive services to all Guyanese, a great number are still unaware of their HIV status.  The National Week of Testing seeks to motivate a large proportion of the populace to come forward to know their status.