Infectious diseases chest clinic commissioned at Suddie for $30M

A $30M Infectious Diseases Chest Clinic was commissioned by Health Minister, Dr. Frank
Anthony, at the Suddie Public hospital on Monday. The clinic will be utilised specifically to treat
persons with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Tuberculosis (TB).
Minister Anthony disclosed that healthcare workers will now have a better facility to treat
patients suffering from these diseases. He stressed that the ministry’s efforts in treating patients
and also eliminating HIV from Guyana’s population. “As you know, with HIV there’s a lot of
things that we’re doing to change how we treat with HIV patients, and so one of the things that
we want to move to is not just treating persons who are HIV positive but also those persons who
are at high risks,” he said.

HIV/AIDS Counselor, Melagreta Pearce cutting the ribbon
Dr. Anthony pointed out that the ministry has also rolled out a comprehensive PrEP (pre-
exposure prophylaxis) programme across the country, which he said will allow persons who
believe they have been exposed to HIV, to be treated. “We have enough medication to do PrEP
and therefore, if we follow the protocol, then we’ll be able to minimise persons getting the
infection so as to become positive,” Dr. Anthony said.
The minister disclosed that that soon HIV self-testing kits would be introduced as another way of
detecting the disease in its early stage. “As you know with TB one of our biggest challenges has
been making sure that people take their medication… and if we’re going to help to cure these
people then we have to make sure they take the medication on time,” the health minister had
noted in relation to TB.
Dr. Anthony noted that during the pandemic, healthcare workers we unable to go out in the
communities to observe and ensure persons are taking their medication. “So, we need to recover,
we need to go back out, we need to find these patients and make sure they are on treatment,” Dr.
Anthony told health workers. Minister Anthony noted that additionally, $100M has been
allocated to improve health facilities in Region Two. He revealed that an x-ray services and
intensive care at the Suddie Hospital will soon be improved.
Further, he said that training opportunities for Community Health Workers (CHW) and nurses
will also be made available in the region. Meanwhile, Parliamentary Representative for Region
Two and Local Government and Regional Development Minister, Nigel Dharamlall, said
developments in the health sector, particularly in the region, were made possible by the
healthcare providers.
“You have seen progress in the delivery of health, and this couldn’t happen without your
profound support and more importantly with the way you dealt with all of the
issues,” Dharamlall told health workers. “It makes no sense we have the physical and the
tangible things and the people who are supposed to be the ones behind it are not optimally
trained,” he added.
Additionally, six TB patients and more than 100 HIV patients along with patients having other
forms of infectious diseases will be treated at the new Chest Clinic.