NAPS’  to re-intensify public awareness of VCT services

―emphasises confidentiality

−workers falsifying test results can be sanctioned

DPI, Guyana, Monday, December 30, 2019

 The National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) has highlighted a trend it says is threatening the gains it has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Secretariat recently engaged the media on its Voluntary Counselling and Treatment (VCT) Services.

Deputy Programme Manager, Dr. Nicolette Boatswain, says the increasing number of people posting their HIV test results to social media was threatening the confidentiality of the VCT services and the reduction of stigma and discrimination already achieved.

“We know that there is still stigma attached to HIV/AIDS, but doing this may add rather than take away from the stigma so many persons still endure,” she said of the practice.

Over a three-year period, preliminary data shows that there has been a decrease in persons accessing VCT services with 57,524 in 2017, as opposed to 49,783 in 2018, and 45,313 in 2019.

Meanwhile, NAPS is urging more people to come forward and get tested for HIV. Persons are encouraged to do continuous testing since an individual may not get an HIV positive result until as much as eight weeks after being infected.

NAPS is also taking a stand against counsellors/testers who falsify test results.

According to National VCT Coordinator, Deborah Success, “The national programme can identify the signatures of all active counsellor/testers and holds the right to investigate any testing activity suspected to be done under ethical or fraudulent circumstances.

Any counsellor who colludes with clients to falsify HIV results will be sanctioned, their certification and license will be revoked, and he or she may face a court of law for engaging in fraudulent activity.”

The VCT services free at 41 public health care sites and seven civil society organisations.