Focus being placed on preventive care for hypertension, diabetes

…as Guyana Medical Mission launches annual free health clinics

Guyana Medical Mission, which comprises a team of doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals who travel from the USA to Guyana to provide free care to communities, on Sunday opened its annual one-week clinic.
The first was held in New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). Today the team is expected to be at St Francis Community Developers Hall at Port Mourant and LanLivMan Health Centre, also in Region Six, while on Tuesday the clinic is scheduled for Belladrum Seventh-day Adventist Church and Mahaicony Community Centre in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice).
The team will move to Mahaica Health Care Centre Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) on Wednesday and then on Thursday the clinic will be held at Buxton Health Care Centre.
The visit will wrap up on Friday when the mission meets at Girl Guides Pavilion and Sophia Health Care Centre.

Among the services being offered are adult and child wellness checks, blood pressure testing and screening, cholesterol screening along with pain management and rheumatology which will only be available in Region Six.
Dental checkups will only be done at Girl Guides Pavilion on Friday.
Speaking with this publication about the visiting Cardiologist Dr Jeanine Ferrao explained that the main reason for the team which has been visiting annually since 2015 was to diagnose ailments and provide preventative care.
“One of the main things that we do is to screen for hypertension and diabetes and we do this because these conditions are very easy to diagnose with just a blood pressure check or to check the sugar and they are very easy to treat once they are diagnosed.”
She pointed out that on most occasions both diseases do not have symptoms but are very serious.
“Diabetes or high blood sugar can result in coma and high blood pressure can result in a stroke. Both these diseases can cause heart diseases or kidney diseases and they are very treatable if you have it.”
In pointing out the importance of screening, Dr Ferrao said many people are too busy taking care of others and neglect to make checks on themselves.
“If you don’t take care of yourself then you are not going to be able to take care of everybody. So, our goal is just to be able to diagnose, treat these common conditions that can help you stay healthy and prolong life.”
Noting that hypertension and diabetes are prevalent in Guyana, Dr Ferrao said they are not peculiar to Guyana.
“A good number of persons are walking around with it and they don’t realise that they have it. With diabetes sometimes you can have symptoms of urinary frequency where you pee a lot, you can have symptoms of feeling very thirsty, you can have symptoms of headaches and blurry vision and you might not associate that to your sugar but it can often be related to your sugar. With high blood pressure they call it the silent killer because there are very few symptoms until the pressure is so high that it causes problems,” she added.
Meanwhile, General Physician Dr Nicole Moore-Clark said these two diseases are being referred to as non-communicable diseases and over ninety per cent of all patients fall within that category
She pointed out that diet has a lot to do with those diseases. Salt intake she said is responsible for hypertension and sugar intake for diabetes.
She said apart from diet, exercise is also important, and only when out of control should medication be an option.
“It’s a lifestyle change and if that fails then you have to resort to medication which is what over 95 per cent of patients with these diseases are on medication. If you think about it you would see the economic toll it takes on any country – and that is what is happening now.”
According to Dr Moore-Clark, traditionally both hypertension and diabetes were diseases that occur later in life with most persons being affected after the age of 50-years-old.
“Now we are seeing children, 20-year-olds and mid-30s are now picking up and carrying the high numbers of these diseases. It has already taken a toll on our society. We really need to do something to get this under control.”
She pointed out that each person can have their checks and also reduce their sugar and salt intake which could eventually have a huge impact on the economy. (G4)