Dear Editor,
Recently, The Caribbean Voice received the following message from Dr Leslie Ramsammy, former PPP/C Minister of Health: “When I was Minister of Health, I openly disagreed with them (WHO) on suicide…We have averaged between 140 and 170 deaths in my time as minister (2001 to 2011). The rate was between 18 and 25 per 100,000. I have argued that while Guyana has a troubling high rate, our rate is not nearly as high as what WHO used to say – 44 per 100,000. I used to challenge them to find the extra 100 to 150 deaths they were claiming. Their justification is that they made adjustments to cater for the underreporting, which they could not verify. It is interesting that when our actual deaths in the 1980s were over 250, they were actually reporting less than 150.”
So The Caribbean Voice did some digging, and this is what emerged:
Clearly, the 2012 figure is an anomaly, especially given that the only adjustment actually made by the WHO is from crude rate to age-standardized suicide rate, to eliminate the effect of differences in population age structures when comparing crude rates for different periods of time, different geographic areas and/or different population sub-groups. Thus the 2015 crude rate of 29.0 was adjusted to 30.6.
Whatever led to this apparent anomaly, it presents a skewed picture that makes the work of suicide prevention NGOs and activists that much more difficult, besides seeming to imply that with such a significant rate reduction, the Government does not need to amp up resources to tackle suicide.
That PAHO rep Dr. Adu was quoted a number of times in certain sections of the media as stating that the 2015 rate was 20.6 is even more puzzling, and despite The Caribbean Voice’s suggestion that Dr Adu may have been misquoted, he has not, to date, provided any public clarifying statement.
Sincerely,
Annan Boodram
The Caribbean
Voice
