Health Ministry holds five-day Counselling, Testing Workshop

The Ministry of Health, Wellness and the Environment this week conducted a five-day Voluntary Counselling and Testing Workshop.{{more}}

The workshop was held to increase the number of persons being counselled and tested for HIV throughout St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Voluntary Counselling and Testing allows people to talk with a counsellor about whether or not they are likely to become infected with HIV and identify ways by which they can avoid becoming infected, a release from the Ministry of Health said.

In order to access HIV care and treatment, persons must first be diagnosed with HIV. The sooner someone knows his/her HIV status, the sooner he/she can get appropriate therapy, which can enable him/her to live a long and healthy life.

The facilitators were Sister Arlitha Scott, Co-ordinator of the National Family Planning Programme, Sister Margarita Tash, Infection Control Nurse, Sister Sheroline Primus, Ward Sister at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, and Staff Nurse Maurice Simmons of the Bequia Hospital.

The workshop, which involved 18 health care providers and persons from other sectors, will end today.