Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
Effectiveness of malaria drug to be ascertained through WHO-funded study
Although moves have been made to update its strategic plan and treatment guidelines, the Vector Control Services Unit of the Ministry of Health has been embarking on a number of strategic projects to further improve its malaria control fight.
And according to Director of the Vector Control Services, Dr. Reyaud Rahman, plans are also apace to soon
Director of Vector Control Services, Dr. Reyaud Rahman
undertake an artemisinin-resistance malaria study with support from the Pan American Health Organisation and funding from the World Health Organisation.
This project, he said, is intended to ensure that the drugs that are being used to treat malaria are still effective.
Dr. Rahman explained that the main drug to treat malaria is Coartem, which has as one of its compounds, an artemisinin-based drug.
“So we are going to check and make sure that our (malaria) parasites are not resistant to this type of drug,” noted Dr. Rahman, who insisted that “initiatives like these we are pretty much strengthening and we will be doing a lot more.”
And in doing more, Dr. Rahman said that there will be evident vector control input in the Regions and in Georgetown. Moreover, he noted that vector control officers, complete with safety gear, will become a regular feature in the capital city.
According to the Director, while there is need to focus on the malaria situation in the endemic malaria regions, fervent efforts will be made in the city to combat an existing mosquito problem, since these vectors are known to transmit certain diseases such as dengue and yellow fever.
“Georgetown is mostly prone to dengue fever and so we have to focus on it. You will see our geared officers spraying your communities shortly; we will be doing a lot of fogging,” said Dr. Rahman.
“We are very much equipped to deal with these things and we will shortly be getting directly into it and getting our feet wet,” he added.
According to Dr. Rahman, a great deal has been done in terms of vector control with specific focus on malaria this year, even as he noted that sustained efforts are in place to continually reduce the number of cases. He disclosed that in addition to wide-scale distribution of impregnated mosquito nets, efforts are made to undertake mass blood smears in Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
Added to this, he said that the efforts of vector control have been strengthened with the training of more malaria microscopists. And the fortification of vector control is certainly not limited to quantity of workers but also the quality of the service offered.
In this regard, the expertise of a world-renowned external examiner has been utilised to re-train senior staffers who have since been tasked with disseminating their new knowledge to their subordinates. Dr. Rahman disclosed that “we are in the process right now of doing some proficiency testing so we will be able to know exactly what our microscopists are capable of, if they are functioning, how well they are functioning and in which areas they need to improve.”
Added to this, he said that efforts are continually being made to improve advocacy and sensitise the population about vector-borne diseases since it has been recognised that many are not very educated in this regard. He said that some persons are uneducated to the extent that they don’t even know how they could contract malaria. Moreover, he noted that the Vector Control Service is on a mission to help realise an educated population even as it works towards maintaining an effective operation.
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