HIV Clinic

Beginnings of HIV Clinic

In late 2002, Dr. Mallika Mootoo and Dr. Arya Devi
approached Sister Sheila Walsh, the then CEO of St. Joseph
Mercy Hospital, with their concerns about the plight of HIV infected adults and children. Sister Walsh listened to their
concerns and together they discussed the possibility of free
HIV testing and counseling and free Co-trimoxazole to those
infected. The seeds of “The Stemming the Tide” program was
sown.
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital received initial funding for this
program from Catholic Relief Services based in the Dominican
Republic.
In 2003, through a partnership with the Ministry of Health,
the program was also able to offer free antiretroviral
medication to HIV infected patients.
By early 2004 about 200 people had been tested and 11 adults
and 5 children were receiving care and treatment on the
Stemming the Tide Program.
In 2004 St Joseph Mercy Hospital received funding through
PEPFAR (The President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief)
to expand and improve the services offered. A consortium of
Catholic Relief Services, the Human Institute of Virology,
University of Maryland and the Futures Group helped train
health care workers and build capacity in our team which
enabled us to become the second largest HIV Care and
Treatment clinic in Guyana.
With the ending of the PEPFAR funding, St. Joseph Mercy
Hospital developed a plan in 2020 to integrate the clinic into
its outpatient services to continue to provide for our patient’s
needs with a spirit of compassion, commitment and
professionalism.

The following are some of the services we provide:

HIV counselling and testing with same day results.

Comprehensive care and treatment package for all
HIV positive persons (clinical and laboratory
monitoring, anti-retroviral treatment, opportunistic
infections and prophylaxis treatment and
counselling.)

Follow-up care for children born to HIV positive
women and initiation of anti-retroviral treatment for
positive children.

Mental health, psychiatric care and counselling
Tuberculosis and Sexually Transmitted Infection
screening and provision of medication for all is
provided at every clinical visit.

Treatment of comorbidities (Hypertension, Type
Two Diabetes Mellitus and other chronic diseases)
Cancer (cervical, prostate, and breast) screening to
all eligible patients.

Hepatitis B (to every eligible patient) and HPV
vaccines.