Testing for H.I.V. in the Privacy of Your Home

The fight against H.I.V. and AIDS in Caribbean continues and the team at the National AIDS Commission is doing their part to ensure that Belize is properly equipped. On Monday, Doctor Russell Manzanero, Director of the Epidemiology Unit at the Ministry of Health and Wellness told us that the number of recorded H.I.V. cases in Belize has not seen a drastic shift upward in years, but the work to drive it downward is still ongoing. We spoke with Enrique Romero, Executive Director of the National AIDS Commission, who told us about how the public can do their part to ensure that they are H.I.V. free in the privacy of their own homes. Here’s more on that.

 

Enrique Romero, Executive Director, NAC

“Globally one of the strategies that has been working in reducing the incidents of H.I.V. globally is the introduction of H.I.V. self-testing modality. So that is something that the National Aids Commission has been advocating for and promoting and working closely with the Ministry of Health and other partners. And we have introduced last year, H.I.V. self-testing, more of a pilot because H.I.V. self-testing is basically you doing the test on your own so last year during the pilot we asked people to come into our facilities at civil society facilities, Belize Family Life Association and GoBelize in Belmopan. And they went into a room and the person in there would assist them in conducting the test. Now the idea now this year is, I believe the colleagues in the Ministry of Health have started rolling this out in some of their districts is the tests are available at the Ministry of Health facility. You ask for an H.I.V. self-test kit, they would give you a kit. The kit comes with a pamphlet that shows you exactly what to do. The kit also has a barcode that you can, everybody has a phone now, you take your phone, you scan the barcode, it takes you to a YouTube channel that shows you exactly how you go about doing the H.I.V. self-test.”