The Ministry of Public Health (MOPH) in collaboration with the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS) yesterday, acknowledged World AIDS Day 2016 with an awareness walk and interfaith service.GPHC participants,Cheap Authentic Jerseys, winner for best uniformed group.The theme was “Hands up for #HIV Prevention”.Participants on the walk were judged for the largest contingent, the best uniform and the best banner.Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton, and Programme Manager for NAPS, Rhonda Moore, led the walk which began at the Square of the Revolution and concluded there after walking through the streets of the city.Participants chanted while walking down the streets about HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention.The event featured prayers from the Muslim community, the Rastafarian community and the Christian community. A cultural performance from the Rastafarian community and a poem written and performed by young Guyanese, Zaheer Mohamed were among the features.Minister Norton commended the participants for helping to spread awareness on HIV/AIDS. It is now 29 years since the first case of HIV/AIDS was diagnosed in Guyana. Minister Norton stated that an important concern is the number of young people being diagnosed with this infection.The Minister stated that they will have to implement testing and counseling for schoolchildren, since that is the age range that will be targeted for testing. National Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) Co-ordinator, Deborah Success-Hall, made mention of the launch of the National Day(s) of testing – a collaboration between the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Education to have the older school children tested for HIV/AIDS. After it was established they targeted a specific group (for the days of testing) with ages ranging from 15 to 19 and 19 to 25.Success-Hall also emphasised the importance of confidentiality and the fact that counseling will be available for persons who test positive for HIV.However, Guyana has made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS. There have been decreases in the number of aids cases and the number of HIV/AIDS related deaths, the Minister said.The Minister said, “I remember years ago, that when persons were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, it was definitely a death sentence. Now it is rated as a chronic disease,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, we are living longer.”There has also been a 6.1% decrease from 2015, in the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission, (PMTCT). The prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in women has decreased from 3.1% in 2003 to 1.9% in 2015.The Minister said that for this year,Wholesale Jerseys China, 21 female sex workers have been trained as counselors. This is crucial because we all are involved in this fight against HIV/AIDS. Twenty persons have also been trained from the vector control unit, which deals with malaria and pneumonia, also ten persons from the Guyana Red Cross Society have received training to better equip them to deal with these cases.Other activities to raise awareness in HIV/AIDS include condom distribution, community globalization, information distribution and messages through social media. The Minister stressed that there is no need for the stigmatization and discrimination of persons living with HIV/AIDS.NAPS Programme Manager, Rhonda Moore, said that Guyana has been involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS for 29 years now. There are approximately 7, 000 persons living with HIV/AIDS and over 5,000 persons are linked to treatment.Moore said that yesterday was a day for not only raising awareness with persons living with this chronic disease, but also to remember the thousands who would have died because of HIV/AIDS. Moore said that it is estimated that approximately 200 persons die annually with HIV/AIDS in Guyana.The winners for the walk included Parliament Office that carried away two trophies for the largest contingent and the best banner, while Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) took away the trophy for the best uniformed contingent.NAPS recently re-launched the National Days of Testing under the theme “Test and Start a New Life”. The testing ran from November 16 to November 20,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, 2016. The launch was held at NAPS’ Hadfield Street and College Road headquarters, Georgetown.At the launch was Minister Norton; Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Karen Cummings; Deputy Chief Medical Officer,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, Karen Boyle; Health Services Development Unit,Cheap Jerseys, MOPH, Dr. Morris Edwards, and Permanent Secretary of the MOPH, Trevor Thomas, were all facilitated to have an HIV/AIDS test.The targeted tes