Failure to utilise ORS may have led to deaths in Region One

Failure to utilise ORS may have led to deaths in Region One – Dr Ramsammy

Sep 21, 2009 News

The use of Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) may have been the key treatment that was not utilised by health workers in Region One when a gastrointestinal illness struck residents there just over two months ago, killing a number of them in its wake.
Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, made this disclosure on Saturday, even as he pointed to the fact that health workers are now adhering to protocol.
However, the Minister disclosed that the Ministry’s investigation into the gastrointestinal illness now sees it consulting with various stakeholders.
“We are checking on the health workers more diligently because one of the things that clearly came out in our investigation is that the health workers were not following standard operation procedures.”
He highlighted that although every health facility in the Region had ample supplies of ORS, they were not being used, a situation which has since changed.
“What was amazing is that if there was one thing our health workers are trained to do is to use ORS. It is a standard thing, particularly for people who live in remote areas. For things like diarrhoea and vomiting, the standard response or intervention is to ensure that people have ORS,” the Minister asserted.
He recounted that in spite of all the public health experts predicting about 700 children dying during the flood that had hit Guyana some years ago, only one child had died. And according to him, that was because from the first day, the health workers were out distributing ORS which is the standard procedure that was not engaged in Region One. “In spite of all that we have done, we still go back and find instances that health workers do not follow protocol. They feel because they have access to powerful antibiotics they can use them alone and don’t use the ORS.”
“The antibiotics take time to work, there is no miracle antibiotic that you take it this second and within 10 seconds it works. The ORS works immediately because what kills you is not the bacteria, it is the dehydration that bacteria causes so when you take the ORS, it rehydrates your body, giving your body time to adjust and allows the antibiotic to fight the bacteria. You need to buy that time and the ORS buys you that time.”
But although there are still persons getting sick in the Region, the Minister noted that they are being treated successfully and are being sent home because workers have now been operating based on protocol.
In fact, the Minister noted that no one else succumbed to the illness. But although the Ministry has not been able to deduce the specific illness, Dr Ramsammy disclosed, “We have been acting as if we know the answer, we have been taking action and the reason for that is not that we are trying to be coy but we are trying to be sure.”
Samples, according to the Minister were tested at the local National Public Health Reference Laboratory and nothing exotic has been detected. However, he noted that samples were also sent to the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre in Trinidad to confirm the Guyana findings before any official declaration is made. The results of those samples are yet to return to Guyana, according to the Minister.
“We were able to do tests in our own laboratory and engage action…One year ago we were not able to do,” said the Minister.
The minister said that within two weeks time, he hopes to have an official engagement with the media in order to point out where the illness originated and how it spread to various areas of the region.

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Failure to utilise ORS may have led to deaths in Region One – Dr Ramsammy

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