Guyana better equipped to treat HIV with upgraded viral load machine- Dr Anthony

The long-promised relief for thousands of persons infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to get access to routine CD4 and viral load tests are available, according to Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony.

Through the procurement of the $105 million viral load machine, healthcare providers are now conducting routine tests in the treatment of HIV-positive persons.

According to the Health Minister, it’s an updated viral load machine purchased directly from the manufacturer, Roche.

On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony told reporters that the machine procured for this purpose in the 2023 budget was installed at the National Public Health Reference lab to treat some 9,000 infected persons. The viral load test is important because it gives persons living with HIV an idea of how much of the virus is in their body – an important mechanism to gauge viral suppression – while CD4 test measures the number of T cells in the blood.

“This is going to help with our management of HIV patients…if we treat those persons with anti-retroviral therapy and make sure that they are virally suppressed they would not be able to transmit.

“In the past we were giving people but we were not sure whether or not what was the status of their viral load,” the Health Minister explained.

The lab was reportedly only offering these tests on an emergency basis.

Guyana has agreed with the UNAIDS, to achieve viral suppression for 95 per cent of its population currently being treated for HIV by 2030. Guyana came pretty close to achieving that target at 87 per cent but in 2021 those high figures dropped.

The absence of testing to track the attainment of the goals has significantly contributed to the decline.

“This is a really important component in our management of HIV patients and they have been working on it and I am sure they are managing their patients well,” Dr. Anthony said when asked about the management of HIV.