LHC still awaiting results 1 month later

Suspected Zika cases in Linden

A month has passed and still the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC) has not received the results of samples sent for testing, suspected to be the Zika virus in Linden, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Head of the region’s Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Health Committee, Dr Gregory Harris, last month disclosed that there were a few suspected cases of the virus in Linden. Dr Harris, who is attached to the LHC, revealed that a few patients who exhibited possible signs of the virus were attended to by health professionals at the medical institution, noting that the samples were sent for testing.
He said that two of those cases might test positive, since those patients had shown a full range of symptoms, including the rash, red eyes (conjunctivitis) and muscle and joint pain. Dr Harris had also promised to make the information of the results available to the public once it becomes available. When contacted on Sunday, however, he indicated that he is still awaiting the results.
The Health Committee Chairman’s suspicions came at a time when there were mounted calls for fogging to commence in the region, in an effort to prevent the spread of mosquito-borne diseases. As promised by Regional Health Officer Pansy Armstrong, fogging has commenced in sections of Linden. Prior to the fogging exercises, she had also indicated that chemicals, such as larvacide were distributed across the region, to assist residents in dealing with the infestation of mosquito.
Earlier in the year, there were eight confirmed cases of the Zika Virus in Guyana and hundreds of suspected cases.
The first case was detected in an East Bank Demerara (EBD) woman who had travelled to Berbice, while the second case was confirmed in a teenage boy residing at Eccles, EBD.
Later on, the virus was detected in two Cuban doctors who reside in Guyana and another woman – all of whom live along the EBD corridor.
There is also a case where a US citizen was infected with the Virus after travelling from Guyana but there was no confirmation if the visitor contracted the disease here.
In Guyana, if patients exhibit symptoms similar to those of the Zika Virus, they are first tested for other related infections such as malaria, dengue or chikungunya. If those test results are negative, the blood samples would then be sent overseas for testing for the Zika Virus. In most cases, the test results have come back negative.

Effects of Zika
French researchers recently discovered that in addition to causing severe birth defects, the Zika Virus can result in a rare neurological ailment in adults and is linked to paralysis-causing myelitis (inflammation in the spinal cord).
Myelitis can affect limb movement and cause paralysis by interrupting communication between the spinal cord and the rest of the body.
French experts reported that a 15-year-old girl diagnosed on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe with acute myelitis in January had high levels of Zika in her cerebrospinal fluid, blood and urine.
“The presence of Zika virus in the cerebrospinal fluid of our patient with acute myelitis suggests that this virus might be neurotropic” – something that attacks the nervous system,” the researchers noted.
Also, there have been less than a handful of reported cases of sexual transmission.