Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 22, 2014 APNU Column, Features / Columnists
The recent recurrent reports of outbreaks of Chikungunya disease have frightened the nation. The persistence of other vector-borne diseases – such as dengue, filaria and malaria – is a threat to public health. Guyanese are largely uniformed of the dangers these diseases pose to the population both in the hinterland and the coastland.
No one is quite sure when the Chikungunya virus arrived as an unwelcome import to these shores. The disease which it causes is transmitted by the Aedes aegypti or the Aedes albopictus mosquito. The government was slow to respond at first, but was eventually forced to admit that Chikungunya had been detected in the East Berbice-Corentyne. It then reached the Demerara-Mahaica Region. Now that the disease has been discovered, there is a frantic effort by the Vector Control Service of the Ministry of Health to conduct ‘fogging’ operations in vulnerable areas.
Dengue fever is not new, but the prevalence is uncertain. There has been an evident upsurge in the prevalence of dengue fever – caused by a virus borne by the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The disease is manifested by the sudden onset of fever associated with headaches and muscle and joint pains. Without proper diagnosis, however, these symptoms can be mistaken for other influenza-like ailments.
Lymphatic filariasis, which is sometimes simply referred to as filariasis or elephantiasis, cannot easily mistaken. It is a vector-borne parasite that can severely affect the human body. It is recognizable by Lymphedema (commonly called big foot) and hydrocele (also called ‘goadie’ in Guyanese creolese). There are currently three known vectors – Aedes aegypti, Culex and Anopheles – in Guyana that can transmit the disease.
Malaria used to be a major cause of death on the coastland but was brought under control over sixty years ago. It is a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito. The majority of the cases are falciparum, which is the most dangerous type of malaria, followed by vivax. Thousands of persons tested positive for malaria are from the hinterland – Barima-Waini; Cuyuni-Mazaruni and Potaro-Siparuni – Regions.
The irresponsible attitude of the PPPC administration in dealing with solid waste and environmental issues facing municipalities and neighbourhood democratic councils has been a major contributory factor to the present vector-borne disease crisis. The central government’s Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development (MLGRD) has been micro-managing or dismantling elected councils and has failed to conduct local government elections for seventeen years to replace the damaged councils.
The MLGRD, further, has been starving councils of funds and thereby triggered, for the first time in history, a country-wide garbage disposal catastrophe. Poor waste disposal has resulted in clogged drains and waterways, mounting garbage piles and stagnant pools in which mosquitoes breed.
The incapacity of the Ministry of Health is another major reason that these four diseases seem to be spreading out of control. The Government of Guyana several years ago constructed the National Public Health Reference Laboratory intended to improve the country’s capacity in clinical laboratory testing and specialised reference testing. All the necessary equipment was in place but, up to the present time, there is not adequate specialized staff to conduct these tests.
The sad result has been that, in the midst of several simultaneous outbreaks, the Ministry has been forced to rely exclusively on the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) laboratory in Trinidad to ascertain the status of suspected cases of Chikungunya, for example. Minister of Health Dr. Bheri Ramsaran himself admitted that over 200 blood samples taken from persons exhibiting symptoms of the virus had to be sent to CARPHA for testing. This process takes about five days before the Ministry can receive confirmatory results.
The People’s Progressive Party Civic – PPPC – administration has the responsibility to protect the population from these diseases. The PPPC must explain why, even in places where mosquitoes were eliminated decades ago, vector-borne diseases are re-emerging. The ‘clear and present danger’ to the population is posed by four deadly diseases, but public information about them has been deficient or deliberately misleading.
The PPPC administration, simply, has precipitated a grave public health crisis in the country. It must now demonstrate its commitment to protecting the population by preventing the spread of these diseases.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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