PSP-One Co-Sponsors Special Initiative to Reach Private Laboratory Owners and Biochemists

Seventy private clinical laboratory biochemists attended an 8-hour training course on HIV/AIDS counseling and testing. Some of the participants came as far as away as El Salvador and Haiti to attend this special session targeted towards private health care professionals.

The course was planned and co-sponsored by PSP-One and the leading Guatemalan NGO, Asociacion de Salud Integral (ASI), as part of the special initiative to reach private laboratory owners and biochemists. The faculty included international experts from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, CDC/Atlanta and national experts from ASI and the Guatemala Association of Biochemists (AQBG). The large majority of the attendees are active members of the AQBG. The topics addressed included epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Guatemala, clinical aspects and diagnostic approaches, HIV/AIDS tests and national diagnostic algorithms, range of HIV/AIDS test kits available, and an overview of the HIV/AIDS law and national counseling guidelines as it relates to a biochemist’s daily practice. Training participants received 8 Continuing Medical Education credit hours for attending the one day training.