PAHO donates $2.5M in equipment to treat patients with cervical cancer in Reg 6

Healthcare provision in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) is expected to improve with the recent procurement of $2.5 million worth of cryotherapy guns to aid in the treatment of cervical cancer as well as a number of computers and electronic supplies to boost the Region’s overall health surveillance system.
The Health Department of Region Six on Monday received this generous donation from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).
Given the common correlation between being infected with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and developing cervical cancer, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony noted the importance of testing for the virus and having other mechanisms put in place to better address it in the country.
“[Cervical cancer] is something we can eliminate from Guyana. All it takes for us to do is to intensify our vaccination, our immunisation with HPV. But so far, the rates have been quite low, especially in [Region Six]. If we want to eliminate cervical cancer, we have to increase the rates of HPV vaccinations,” Anthony said.
In addition to increasing the prevalence of HPV vaccinations, Minister Anthony also explained that for persons who are sexually active, the Ministry’s service expansion further includes pap smears and visual inspection of the cervix with acetic acid (VIA) testing.
“During VIA, if we notice any abnormal cells, we can then use cryotherapy to make sure that we fix them,” Anthony said.
While VIA screening is an effective method used to screen the cervix with acetic acid for pre-cancerous lesions in women, cryotherapy refers to the use of extreme cold to freeze and remove abnormal tissue.
As such, the newly acquired cryotherapy guns will be distributed within a number of health centres in Region Six, including the Orealla Health Centre, to build its capacity for dealing with these health concerns.

Surveillance system
Meanwhile, Minister Anthony highlighted the work the Ministry has been doing to improve health surveillance systems countrywide to provide programmes that meet the needs of different communities.
“A lot of our surveillance system is built around capturing infectious diseases and there’s an obligation for the staff when they discover the reportable ones, to send that to Georgetown so we can consolidate them and report it,” Anthony said.
“Having a system just to report when you have a particular outbreak is not what we’re looking for. We want a system that can help us in our planning, in doing health better in the community,” Anthony said.
He stated that apart from looking at infectious diseases and working on its elimination, the Ministry is also looking to assess the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases within various communities.
“By going out into the community and doing surveillance in the community, we are moving from passively collecting information to actively collecting information,” Anthony said. “[We’ll be] using that information to plan what services we should offer…to match the needs of communities,” Anthony said.
Dr Anthony further expressed his intention to scale up this community surveillance across the regions to ensure health services more appropriately address community needs.
Among those present at the equipment handover ceremony on Monday were Regional Health Officer, Dr Vishyala Shamra; Regional Chairman, David Armogan; and International PAHO Consultant, Dr Khyati Aroskar.