Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 27, 2010 News
By Sharmain Cornette
While the HINI virus (Swine Flu) is the newest influenza to have invaded the health sector on a global scale, it certainly will not be the last threat of this nature to be seen.
This notion was emphasised by Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, when he addressed the gathering at the opening of a three-day Avian and Pandemic influenza working meeting at the Grand Coastal Inn, Plantation Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara.
The aim of the meeting, which is a collaborated effort between the Ministry of Health, USAID and PAHO/WHO, is to develop an operational Communication Plan to confront any and all potential health threat with urgency.
The event was yesterday deemed as very important as it will deal with how health professionals communicate with citizens in the face of any kind of outbreak and even health in general. “The tools and the strategies that are going to be examined over the next couple of days are going to be relevant for the media, health sector practitioners…” said Minister Ramsammy.
And communication, the Minister said, is an absolute essential. According to him a part of the problem globally has been that the health sectors and health authorities of the world did not communication effectively with the citizens of the world, a development which had fostered mass confusion about the HINI virus.
“We still don’t know the extent of the HINI problem. We know that millions have been affected but the count has stop.” In many countries, he revealed, that not every suspected case is tested thus there is no way to confirm how many persons died from the virus.
However, Dr Ramsammy, with pride, expressed his convictions that Guyana has done a better job tackling the HINI virus when compared to many other countries. The media in some countries did little to suppress confusion, the minister added.
“I will never forget the day I was on my way to Geneva and on my stopover in New York…CNN (journalist) was saying millions have died; their bodies are all over the Mexico and the United States and the hypocrites of the World Health Organisation and the US CDC are fooling us…I was looking around me but I wasn’t seeing any dead bodies but it was reported and many people believed,” said Minister Ramsammy.
Categorising the CNN report as “irresponsible journalism,” Dr Ramsammy said that the local Health Ministry was and still is trying its best to be up front with citizens by informing them as soon as a new case was confirmed.
Thirty-two cases have been laboratory confirmed. But according to him “numbers don’t tell the whole story.
We don’t test everyone when they have influenza-like illnesses and if within a family where there is HINI-influenza-like illnesses chances are great that another person in that family has it too.”
However, through the Ministry’s epidemiological confirmation by way of a high suspicion index, 26 persons were identified as having the virus. As a result, Guyana can reasonably accept that it had 58 cases of the virus.
However, Dr Ramsammy is convinced that most countries would not make public such information in the manner the local health sector has. “In most countries they believe that if they talk about these nuisances the problem would look bigger than it is and there will be a problem dealing with the public. In Guyana we want people every step of the way to know what is happening in Guyana,” Minister Ramsammy asserted.
However, he admitted that the health sector is not always in a position to do so. But according to him the Ministry of Health understands that education and awareness are important component of a strong health system.
He said that while many are pushing the idea of system strengthening there is never talk about building a capacity within Ministries of Health for health communication. According to him health can never be accomplished by Ministries alone; health can never be guaranteed by only having enough doctors, nurses, medical technologists, pharmacists and other health professionals.
While having the best of health professionals will offer a better chance of health care, good health can be guaranteed when health becomes the responsibility of all the citizens of a population.
He noted that every citizen should have the information they need to make proper judgement and health enhancing decisions. “Communication is an indispensable component of health system strengthening and yet no Ministry of Health in developing countries have a health communications department.
Many have health communication functions but there isn’t a department that has been made accountable for communicating with the public.”
And it is with the intent of imposing a paradigm shift, the Minister said that efforts are now being made to establish a real health communication department that is staffed by communication specialists.
According to Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, through the department the health ministry will be able to enlighten citizens about communication risks, a move which is essential for the achievement of certain goals of the health sector in developing countries.
The workshop, he said, comes as a result of a series of discussions which were engaged shortly after the invasion of the HINI virus. And since Guyana has a diverse population measures must be implemented to enable an appropriate response.
Ms Debora Freitas, Director of Integrated Marketing Communications, said that the workshop is expected to see them being engaged in a very busy schedule during which efforts will be made to create a draft communication document.
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