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The organizers invited the media to stop by to reinforce their message on why it's important to know your status:

Arthur Usher, Communication Officer - NAC
"Today is the regional testing day which is a regional initiative done by Scotia Bank and the Caribbean Broadcasting for HIV. Belize's effort, we are coordinating with the National Aids Commission and Ministry of Health, PASMO as well as Scotia Bank obviously. What we are doing is we are promoting HIV test. We are telling everybody to come out, get your test, its free, it's a rapid test. It's basically 15 minutes in and out from the onset on filling out the forms to getting the test to getting the results - its about 15 minutes. Again it's always good to know your status. People like say that they don't want to know. The point of the matter is it's important to know and not to know. Belize's stats are that we are still pretty high; Belize District, then San Ignacio and Dangriga in the country. We have a very high prevalence rate for our region of 1.4 and right now in terms of stats, women are getting tested more than men, at least 2 times as much which is partially due to the fact that when they get pregnant they go in for the testing, but generally women have a better attitude about going out to getting tested and getting their health check."

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, & Malaria has given Belize an A-1 rating in the fight against AIDS.