DESCRIBED by its distinguished reviewers as timely and relevant, ‘HIV & AIDS: Knowledge and Stigma in Guyana’, authored by University of Guyana Pro-Chancellor Dr. Prem Misir, was launched last Thursday at the New Building Society Limited (NBS) at Avenue of the Republic and North Road, Georgetown.

Misir is the author of eight books and numerous journal articles. He said this book was grounded in the behavioural sciences.

A description of the work says the cross sectional study used a purposive sample of 179 high school students from 15 urban and rural high schools in Guyana, and assessed their HIV and AIDS knowledge and stigma-related attitudes and the relationship among gender, age, religion and race ethnicity and HIV and AIDS knowledge.

Dr Misir noted that his book was centred on adolescents for multiple reasons, including that many STIs are contracted in this age group, and that their attitudes are still being shaped, so interventions have a higher success rate.

Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran said HIV/AIDS is more than a health issue, it’s a developmental issue. “HIV threatens the able-bodied work force. It hits at our future. Any tool that helps us to analyse the impact on our development is welcome”.

He remarked that the nature of HIV has changed, and the disease is now a ‘chronic disease’. He said the book comes at a time when the disease is a burden on our economy, and we need any resource that can help.

Reiterating this point, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds called the book timely. He warned that we have to guard against falling into complacency against HIV/AIDS.