Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy has said that Guyana has worked hard over the past decade to tackle the scourge of HIV/AIDS. He added that with the reduced prevalence the country can now purchase better quality drugs to treat infected persons.Dr Ramsammy recently told media operatives that when Guyana wrote for grants years ago the projections were much higher.“We are using newer and more state-of-the-art medicine,Cheap Jerseys,” Dr Ramsammy said.He reiterated that the same drug regimen being used in the United States of America as the first line drugs is being used in Guyana.Dr Ramsammy added that the programme is now maturing and soon Guyana will face the same problem that the USA faced in the mid-90s when people started getting resistant to the drugs“In another five years we will have to go to newer medicine which will be even more expensive.”Ramsammy said that this is something he has been preaching over the years but added that Guyana does not have nor gets all the money it needs.He pointed out that in other countries persons would have to pay for an HIV test but in Guyana it is done for free. The reagents used in the tests are very expensive.Dr Ramsammy said that there was no dishonesty on the part of the Ministry as it relates to the purchase of the Anti Retroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat infected persons in Guyana as well as with the procurement of the tests.“Guyana worked hard to reduce the prevalence…Before I became Minister the prevalence was reported to be three to five per cent.” The true figure was much less.He lamented the fact that at time 150 babies born infected and as much as 800 pregnant women were affected adding that these days it is only about a 100 and about three to five babies born infected.Speaking to the issue of whether officials at the Ministry could siphon off monies received for the purchase of ARVs Dr Ramsammy said that Guyana never had direct access to the money.“Its Global Fund and PEPFAR… The money is not put in our hands. We get the money when we have to pay the money…It goes directly to suppliers.”Dr Ramsammy stressed that when the Ministry of Health applies for grants it does not know how much the country really needs given that “we are applying based on projections that can change.”He added,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, “If we don’t use the resources the money goes back to World Bank.”The Health Minister further added that the money can’t be spent on anything other than what it is intended. Of course there are instances of budgeted funding. He added that in cases where all the money is not used,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, Guyana has been known to apply to the institutions to change the budget line and the adjustments were made.