Vector Control to be more proactive in Malaria fight
The Public Health Ministry’s Vector Control Services (VCS) unit will be taking a more proactive role to reduce the mosquito-borne disease, Malaria, in the hinterland regions.
Barticians, health workers and Vector Control Services (VCS) staff at the ceremony in observance of Malaria Day in the Americas in Bartica, Region Seven
A number of health workers from within Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) have already been trained in microscopy, which will assist in early tracking and diagnosis of the disease.
This was highlighted at the “Malaria Day in the Americas” observance on Friday in Bartica, Region Seven. The annual event is observed on November 6, in all the countries of the Americas. The theme for this year’s observance is “End Malaria for good”.
A team comprising officials of the VCS, the Public Health Ministry, and the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation’s Dr Jean Alexandre travelled to Bartica to join with their health counterparts within that region to recognise this day.
Bartica was chosen for the launch and celebration of this day since it is recorded that this area has the highest rate of malaria cases among Guyana’s ‘moving’ population.
VCS Malaria Coordinator, Dr Quacy Grant is quoted by the Government Information Agency (GINA) as saying that for this year thus far, Malaria rates in Region Seven have been fluctuating; however, efforts have been made to ensure the numbers of cases decrease.
Grant outlined a number of activities that VCS would be involved in, in the effort to fulfil this year’s Malaria Day in the Americas’ theme. Other measures are being put in place to ensure that the high number of cases within mining and logging areas is reduced. One of these measures is the training of regional health workers.
Also community mapping is expected to be carried out, starting with Region Seven, in order to track the ‘moving’ population, and the rates of detected Malaria cases.
Mining and logging areas are prone to producing higher numbers of vector-borne diseases because of the condition of the surroundings which lend themselves to being breeding sites for mosquitoes. However, miners and loggers, who are numbered among the moving population of endemic regions, can contract Malaria at any point in time.
VCS Director, Dr Horace Cox said, “We found that in Guyana we have a mining population of about 38,000 people which we consider to be mobile population, which is a combination of both mining and logging. What we have discovered is in the mining setting, persons would dig the pits looking for gold, and they do all of these different things and create mosquito breeding sites.”
The VCS plans to further decentralise the Malaria programme to effectively reach persons who are more likely to be infected with Malaria in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. Additionally, steps are being taken to intensify net distribution within these areas.
Guyana has been commemorating a National Malaria Day since November 6, 2003, which was the proposed date for the observance of Malaria Day in the Americas. This date coincides with the day when the presence of Malaria parasites in the blood of patients with febrile symptoms was first detected by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran in 1880.
Having made note of this, at the 27th Pan-American sanitary conference held in Washington, DC in 2007, it was agreed upon by all countries of the Americas that November 6 would be recognised as Malaria Day in the Americas.
