Ramsammy declares Guyana can celebrate winning the battle
GUYANA has come a long way in accomplishing its goal of decreasing the spread of HIV/AIDS over the years and shown a drastic reduction in the number of babies who are born with the disease every year.
This is according to Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, who reported, yesterday, that this country is one of the first to articulate the importance of “getting it to zero”.
“Guyana is on trajectory with controlling HIV in Guyana  …2011 is a year in which we can celebrate the fact that we are winning the battle,” he asserted.
Ramsammy added that the theme for World Aids Day, observed yesterday, is getting it to zero and, as the globe observes the occasion in 2011, Guyana takes pride in the fact that it has been one of the countries that have started this fight very early in 2001.
The minister pointed out that, over the years, his ministry and other pioneers of the elimination of  HIV/AIDS have been working assiduously to bring a drastic decrease in the number of babies born with the disease.
“We wanted to have no child living with HIV by 2015. At the time, Guyana had large amounts of new born … 150 new born babies per year that were HIV positive,” he recalled.
Ramsammy noted that, with the strategies implemented and the many interventions, already the country has moved to a next level which shows a massive achievement in the ministry’s goal of arriving at this reduction.
“We have reduced that figure of 150 to less than 5 per year … we have virtually reduced that and we have come a long way in addressing this issue,” he reiterated.
Additionally, he said, with all the new measure being put into place, more than eighty per cent of the people eligible for treatment are receiving the necessary support that is needed.
The minister said that Guyana is far advanced and, on such a day, the country is proud to have achieved this much.
PRIDE       
“When we look back at the amount of work we have done, we do so with a great deal of pride at how much we have achieved in this regard,” he said.
Ramsammy noted that Guyana has reached a point when stigma and discrimination against persons living with this disease is no longer a growing problem since persons are more educated about the HIV/AIDS.
“As the minister who has led this battle, I take a lot of pride for this and, to my staff and all those NGOs and other private and public organisations which have been working and assisting the ministry in accomplishing this goal, I commend you,” he said.
World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice, improving education and is important for reminding people that HIV has not gone away and there are many things still to be done, UNAIDS said.
UNAIDS estimates there are now 34 million people living with HIV. During 2010, some 2.7 million became newly infected with the virus, including an estimated 390,000 children. Despite a significant decline in the estimated number of AIDS-related deaths over the last five years, there were still an estimated 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths in 2010.
The vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in low-and middle-income countries but HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world, UNAIDS concluded.