Health Ministry working to eliminate “neglected” infectious diseases – Min Anthony

− says about 8500 persons are HIV positive

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Thursday while addressing the first batch of students enrolled in the 44th Medical Extension (Medex) programme stated that the Ministry is on the road to eliminating the burden of the many neglected diseases in Guyana.
“…We have a lot of infectious diseases that have been with us for a long time, they continue to be there. And we have some plans where we want to reduce the burden of these diseases. There’s a whole group of them that are called the neglected infectious diseases. Some of these include leishmaniasis, or as it’s commonly known as ‘bushias’… you have chagas disease, which in some of the areas in Guyana its endemic. And therefore, we need to work in eradicating it,” the Minister noted.

As such, he told the students that they will be tasked to identify these diseases in the various communities in which they will be seconded.
He noted that the Medex officers are expected to work along with the Ministry in creating a strategic plan on how to eliminate the diseases.
“So, a lot of these neglected diseases – we are part of the global system and we’ve set ourselves a global target of eliminating – not reducing – these neglected diseases from our country. And we can only do that if you are going to help us to do that… so that’s one area that we have to work on, and you’re going to be expected to be part of this movement of eradicating some of these diseases.”
He further stated that while the task may seem difficult to do, the Ministry has been working on the lymphatic disease (Filaria) over the past few years, and has recorded many successes thus far with that particular disease.
Additionally, he also related that the Ministry is on the verge of commencing a certification programme in this regard.
“…Because of the work we have done using dec salt, using medicines that we shared out house to house and give people, now the burden of that disease has dropped significantly, and now we are hoping that by the end of this year, the programme of certifying that we are filaria-free, would begin. So later, maybe in another month or so, they’ll start doing some of those tests to verify that,” the Minister revealed.

Malaria and HIV
The Minster highlighted that Malaria continues to be a major problem, especially in the hinterland regions.
“Malaria, in many of the communities that you’ve come from, malaria is a big problem. And what we’ve traditionally trained people to do is to reach the microscope, the slides and then to make a diagnosis of what type and then offer treatment,” he stated.
“But again, we need to reduce the burden of the disease. How can we do that? We have to look at how we can break transmission, how we can reduce the vector, meaning, how we can reduce the mosquito burden, and if you have less mosquitoes, it means that chances of transmission would be reduced,” he pointed out.
Dr Anthony further made note of the current strategies which are being used in the effort to eradicate malaria.
He explained that the Ministry is currently distributing insecticide impregnated bed nets.
“We’ve distributed these nets, and we expect that you learn more about that technology, so that you could advise people more in the community, why they need to sleep under these nets. Because a simple action like that can change the dynamics of malaria in a village,” he reassured.
In addition to this, he revealed that health officials are also working with an international agency on a technique to sterilise mosquitoes using radiation.
He informed that some of the outreach workers have already commenced training, however, “as you get this Medex training and you’ll be working in those areas, you should familiarise yourself with some of these techniques, because these techniques are some of the new techniques that we’ll be using and you’ll need to know them… so, malaria, we want to reduce the burden, to make sure that this is no longer a significant threat”.
The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) was also highlighted as another problem that is being faced in the country.
“Right now, we have about 8500 persons who are HIV positive,” Dr Anthony informed.
“We have to treat them. We have to make sure that they do not have complications. And again, during your practice, you would encounter people who are HIV positive,” he told the Medex students.
“But there’s a lot of hope. We now have medication that if there are persons who are at risk for HIV, if we give them these medications, we can prevent them from getting HIV. We’re now talking about PrEP – Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis so before you even – once you’re at high risk, you can get these medications and prevent the infection from happening,” he said.
In addition to this, he revealed that the Ministry has plans to introduce self-testing for HIV patients.
He urged the students to keep abreast with what is happening in order to educate and work with the people within the communities so that they can utilise the new techniques that are being made available.