Guyana
Guyana has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the Latin America and Caribbean region. After its first case of HIV was reported in 1987, prevalence increased until 2004. By 2007, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimated 13,000 people in Guyana were HIV positive and the adult HIV/AIDS prevalence was 2.5 percent. Due to scale-up of treatment, the numbers of AIDS cases and deaths from AIDS have declined over the past decade, while the number of testing sites has nearly tripled. Currently, the country’s generalized epidemic is stable, with a prevalence estimated at 1.9 percent at the end of 2009 according to national statistics, but AIDS remains the second most common cause of death, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The HIV/AIDS program in Guyana is focused on HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. The goal of the program is to strengthen public health systems, with enhanced assistance from civil society and the private sector. Under this program, USAID supports the Government of Guyana, civil society, and the private sector by strengthening and expanding existing efforts in order to sustain a continuous, integrated, and effective response to HIV/AIDS. Key activities include supporting expanded access to PMTCT services; access to HIV counseling and testing; HIV prevention for adolescents, youth, and persons engaging in high-risk behaviors; prevention education in the workplace; procurement of drugs and supplies; safe medical injections; treatment of opportunistic infections and care services to persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS, including OVC. Overall, health systems strengthening initiatives focus on improving health information systems to promote data use for decision making and planning. It also involves improving health commodity management systems and building human resource capacity to respond to HIV/AIDS and other diseases within the local health sector.
View the full USAID
HIV/AIDS Health Profile for Guyana - September 2010 [PDF,
184KB].
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