IN SPITE of the tremendous effort of the Ministry of Public Health, backed by non-governmental organisations and donor agencies, to fight the stigma of HIV/AIDS, there is still work to be done, especially at Charity, Essequibo Coast.This closely-knitted community with a population of over 6000 residents, the majority of whom are between 15 and 30 years old,
practises a unique closeness among neighbours and community members, to the extent that most relationships are no secret, since everyone practically knows what everyone else is doing.

But members of the community are generally yet to become receptive to persons with the HIV virus, which means that anyone there with the virus has to keep it a very tightly guarded secret if they choose to remain in the community.

For this reason, persons who believe they have the virus seldom visit the Charity Hospital, preferring instead to go to the Suddie Public Hospital, even though they have to pay substantial transportation cost.

The Suddie Public Hospital is also the main treatment centre for the virus in Region Two, but testing and counselling are done at the Charity Hospital.

Patients who are tested positive are referred to the Suddie Public Hospital, and these cases have been few, Onecia Spellen, HIV Councillor/Tester at the Charity Hospital, told the Guyana Chronicle. Spellen has been stationed at Charity Hospital for the past seven years, and works to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Most of the cases to which she has been assigned were successful, as the patients took their treatment seriously.

These she counts as part of her achievements, pointing out to this publication that persons with the virus are usually in denial that they have the virus, and would keep the information to themselves. This might be due to the stigma the community and some family members attach to the virus, Spellen said, but she noted that patients with the virus have to find some close person to whom they can talk, and who can support them.

GIVE SUPPORT
“Bottling up the feeling and experience will not help their cause; it will only add to the stress they are going through, and make matters worse for them. It is important that the family be supportive to a member who got the virus. You cannot change it as long as it happened, so it is very important that you give the infected person as much support as you can, so that he/she can at least feel some level of comfort.

“These people want someone to talk to, and the family should be a strong supporting unit. And secondly, persons tested positively with the virus have to accept that they have the virus, endeavour to live responsibly, and should take counselling and their treatment seriously. At the Suddie Hospital it is done for free,” the HIV Councillor said.

She related that the few cases she has diagnosed at the Charity Hospital have been young people who are living very reckless lives. Many young people who are sexually active, Spellen said, do not come forward to be tested, and a great lot who have come in to be tested have been having unprotected sex with multiple partners.

“I have been counselling them, but the number is worrying. The story they tell me is (a cause for) worry. Many of them have multiple sex partners, and they have unprotected sex; and what is worse is that many of them are in a competition to see who can sleep with the most persons. This often happens when they go on drinking sprees,” Spellen said.

The stigma the community attaches to the virus, she said, appears to do little, if anything, to influence the reckless youths to change their risky behaviours.

THE PERCEPTION
In fact, she said, the stigma is so great that persons, who come to her to be tested have to be very careful how they react when their results show negative.

“Some jump for joy, some scream, some would throw themselves on the floor, some try to hug me. I recall one of them kissed me and ran through the door. But while all this was happening, there is a crowd outside the office, anxious to know what is going one with the noise. Most of them believe that the person celebrating the negative result has been diagnosed as positive and finds it unpalatable to bear the results.

“And as soon as he exits the door, all attention is focused on him, and the general conclusion from those outside is that he has the virus. The people who see him tell their neighbours and friends, and a whole lot of people begin to look at the man with suspicion; but the truth is that the man was tested negative,” she explained.

Those who are tested positive, she said, are often in a state of shock and denial, and she would usually have to tell them that she would turn up at their homes if they do not seek treatment and take their condition seriously.

“When they hear this, (it) is like if they see death coming. By the way, the people in the community do no call me the HIV Councillor/Tester, they call me the AIDS girl; and if the AIDS girl turns up at your house, it means somebody in the house got AIDS. That has become a big issue of discussion in the neighbourhood, and there are all sorts of speculation (about) who in the house is likely to have the virus.

“It is a terrible thing, so when I tell them I would visit them, they don’t hesitate to take their treatment. But I have to tell them this to ensure that they do take their treatment,” Spellen related.

She told the Guyana Chronicle that all this drama could be avoided if persons live responsible lives; and on that note, she appealed to the young people throughout Guyana, and especially at Charity, to live responsibly and protect themselves against the virus.

The Essequibo Coast has a population of some 46,000 persons. In 2015, only 1,773 persons were tested, of which 13 (seven females) of them were found to be HIV positive.

Recently, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported that 1,035 new HIV cases have been recorded in Guyana during the past six years; and an average of 85 per cent of all infected persons are on the Government-run treatment programme.

Guyana recorded its first AIDS case in 1987, and has since made significant strides in containing the virus.