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Guyana Reports Slight Drop in HIV/AIDS Cases Among Pregnant Women

Posted on: Monday, 8 August 2005, 15:01 CDT

Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) news agency on 8 August

Georgetown, Guyana: The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate among pregnant women in Guyana dipped by five per cent, according the latest figures released here.

The statistics from the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) sites nationwide show just two per cent of pregnant women have been tested positive with the deadly virus, down from seven per cent in 2002.

"Before 2002, the ante-natal prevalent rate was seven per cent, which was probably the highest after Sub-Saharan Africa. By the end of 2000 when the programme was implemented, the rate was down to 4.1 per cent. In 2003, it was down to 3.4 per cent and by 2004 it was 2.4 per cent. For the first half of this year it was two per cent," Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy recently reported.

"That's remarkable achievement," the minister said.

He lauded the PMTCT programme "as a phenomenal success so far", because more pregnant women are volunteering to be tested for the HIV/AIDS virus". [quotation marks as received]

"When it was first launched in November 2002 the number of women volunteering to be tested at the pilot clinics amounted to between 60-70 per cent. At present, that figure stands at 94 per cent", Dr Ramsammy said.

He said the heightened education and awareness programmes must be credited for the gains made so far under the PMTCT national effort.

Nevertheless, Dr Ramsammy is dissatisfied with the infection rate among the country's child bearers.

"This prevalence rate is still highly unacceptable and our intention is to further reduce it," Dr Ramsammy reported.

Statistics from the 10 administrative regions here show that Region Seven (Cuyuni/Mazaruni), with a 3.3-per-cent prevalence rate, has the highest ante-natal prevalence rate in the 83,000-square- mile (215,000-square-kilometre) country.

Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica), the most populated area which includes the capital Georgetown, has a 2.9-per-cent prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS pregnant persons according to the figures.

The third highest HIV prevalence rate was found to be 1.8 per cent in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam). Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) recorded 1.7-per-cent infection rate, while Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Berbice) recorded 1.2 per cent.

The HIV/AIDS rate among the pregnant in the other regions showed less that one per cent infection rate, figures here indicate.

Source: BBC Monitoring Americas

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