Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 02, 2010 News
– Dr Ramsammy
Mining is a major contributory factor to the incidence of locally reported cases of malaria, according to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy. In fact he revealed to this newspaper yesterday that nearly 75 percent of all malaria cases have been recorded among miners.
The Minister remarks were forthcoming even as he admitted that the Ministry of Health is currently facing a major challenge in addressing the incidence of malaria in interior locations. And it is specifically in areas of mining operations that are the toughest to address, he added. This newspaper recently highlighted that there has been an upsurge in the mosquito-borne disease in Mahdia, Region Eight. The disease is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. And once the human body is invaded the parasite can multiply in the liver and infect red blood cells.
Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache and vomiting, all of which usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, some types of malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs.
However, the noticeable incidence of the disease is not only centred in Region Eight but rather in several other interior communities, said Minister Ramsammy. He said that although the situation has been brought under control in some areas it has been recognised that it is occurring in new places which it has not been known to previously infiltrate.
Nonetheless, the Health Ministry has been working tirelessly to battle the new cases thus the numbers have remained relatively stable, the Minister added.
But despite the valiant efforts, he noted that it has been a trying task to keep up with all of the mining communities as miners sometimes venture very deep into areas where the health workers cannot travel to easily.
“We are still trying our best to work with the miners although the health workers are really stretched to reach them because it does not take a few hours to get to the miners…it can take days to get to them, so we are really challenged because we can’t leave our health posts unmanned.”
However the need for 100 percent coverage is crucial, otherwise the Ministry could risk jeopardising the progress it has made over the years as it relates to the control of malaria.
In many parts of the world, the malaria parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medicines.
Key interventions to control it include: prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies; use of insecticidal nets by people at risk; and indoor residual spraying with insecticide to control the vector mosquitoes. The local health sector has been working to prevent the disease primarily through the distribution of impregnated mosquito nets.
“We are doing what we can, but getting the miners to keep using the nets is a challenge in itself. There are new miners that join the operation and we have found that they in some cases do not use the nets…sometimes the nets reach back to Georgetown and are not used as they should be.”
And though the Ministry has been able to cooperate with miners, for the most part, the Ministry’s attempt to reduce the scourge of malaria has remained at approximately 10,000 cases per annum for the last three years. Nonetheless, Minister Ramsammy is optimistic that the Ministry will be able to meet its target of no more than 8,000 cases by 2012.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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