Simply put, the goal of the Project is to improve the health of the Guyanese population by providing additional resources --including human and institutional capacity-- in support of nationwide interventions. We plan to strengthen the capacity of the Government of Guyana to:

• Better manage, deliver and monitor disease prevention and control programs in the areas of STI/HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis
• Effectively plan, manage, and evaluate health care services
• Strengthen Guyana's Health Information System (HIS) to support the collection, storage and communication of health data, and the processing of that data into health information

The key components of the Project are:

1. Expanding and Strengthening the Prevention Management and Care of STIs/HIV/AIDS:

The project is providing technical support for the National Aids Secretariat (NAPS), developing and implementing national guidelines for STIs and HIV/AIDS, strengthening the local capacity to deliver and sustain the Prevention and Management of STI/HIV/TB, and strengthening laboratories to support diagnosis and treatment of STIs/HIV and TB.

2. Improving National Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program:

The project is improving the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) by providing technical and administrative support for the NTP Unit, developing and implementing national technical and operational diagnosis and treatment guidelines; and, developing implementation strategies for directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) for tuberculosis using WHO standard treatment.

3. Strengthening the Health Information System:

The project is establishing a new health information system (HIS) to support the collection, storage and communication of health data, and the processing of that data into health information. At the same time, the notion of a common system with common definitions versus special surveillance systems for particular diseases is implicit in the design proposed. The HIS to be developed by the Project is a generic system, whose initial application will be in STI/HIV/AIDS/TB areas, but which can be expanded as a platform for a wide range of data to be captured, as needed.

4. Community Health Development and Care:

The focus of this component, implemented with expertise from VON, is training and capacity development among nurses and community and home health care workers for the delivery of palliative care to TB and AIDS patients in non-institutional settings. Given the shortage of nurses within Guyana, the focus of this component is the development of education programming and the training of "trainers" capable for developing a cadre of community-based workers and volunteers as complementary health workers.