Reflecting on half-century of evolving health care

Jan 31, 2016 News

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…as preparations are made for 50 more years of improved services

By Sharmain Grainger
Fifty is undeniably a mature age and Guyana as an independent nation is swiftly heading to that once-in-a-lifetime milestone. Under the leadership of then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, Guyana diligently fought to free itself from British rule and was able to do so on May 26, 1966 and has never looked back.

There are many people who have been aging alongside Guyana’s independence and can attest to the fact that the age of 50 is often when a number of underlying health issues can surface. Such issues are often linked to chronic Non-Communicable Diseases which have been gaining much attention from Government through its Ministry of Public Health.
It was against this background that the Public Health Ministry collaborated with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) during the past week to reflect on Guyana’s health situation during the past half century.
According to Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, “our health systems have passed through many stages, from independence onwards.” The expectation is that the evolution of the health sector will be among the highlights of the jubilee celebration this year.
But chronicling the evolution of the health sector over the years might not be an easy task in all aspects.
“Unfortunately for us at the Ministry we had two major fires, and those fires took away a lot of historic evidence of some of the work that was done at the Ministry in the past,” Dr. Persaud disclosed.
He, however, noted that some of the issues that existed in the early days still do exist among the population to date, and continue to pose a challenge. The CMO was at the time alluding to something as simple as hygiene.
A culture of very revolting unhygienic practices has been what many people have embraced over the years, resulting for instance in the capital city of Georgetown, which in its early days was deemed ‘the Garden City’ to be redubbed ‘the Garbage City’.
With that status of course, many viruses, particularly those vector-borne, were allowed to thrive. This understandably caused the health sector to be under added pressure to safeguard its people.
But even as Guyana prepares to celebrate its 50th year of independence, a much needed change that will aid the health sector’s efforts is emerging.
“Things have improved; Georgetown is a much cleaner place,” Dr. Persaud said, as he alluded to a countrywide clean-up campaign that was evoked when the coalesced A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) Government assumed administrative power.
“Parts along the Coast have improved in terms of garbage disposal,” added Dr. Persaud.
He, however, confessed that “we are still plagued with a lot of sanitation issues. Even though that has been an early engagement for health, we still have a lot of things to do there and those will definitely be a part of the continuing strategy in the next 50 years.”
But apart from the sanitation situation that Guyana has had to deal with over the years, another important issue of focus that was long engaging the attention of the health sector has been that of food and nutrition.
According to Dr. Persaud, the health sector has had to engage efforts to arrest a severe malnutrition situation, particularly in the remote areas of the country. But simultaneously, the health sector was hard-pressed to handle the spread of communicable diseases.
While successes in the health sector were not always easily attained it was very laudable and very memorable when they were realised. And Dr. Persaud noted that “from the ‘60s coming into the ‘70s, we developed one of the best immunisation programmes across the Region and even across the World”.
This is substantiated by the many occasions that the former Director of the Maternal and Child Health Unit accepted honours on the Ministry’s behalf in this regard.
Dr. Janice Woolford has since joined forces with PAHO, and as such is still offering her expertise to the health sector.
“Together with PAHO and all the other agencies we are working towards developing a very robust immunisation programme, so much so that anything that comes along now, the first thing our population asks for is vaccines… H1N1, Zika, and there is Chikungunya, and people are asking ‘what about the vaccines?’ They are so aware and know of the benefits that immunisation provides, that everyone in Guyana seeks out vaccines,” the CMO disclosed.
As such, he noted that the Ministry is constantly reviewing its immunisation programme in order to sustain its efficacy, so that it is viable for the next 50 years. This comes at a time when the public health sector is embracing the notion of even immunising against chronic diseases. “We have started HPV, which is the vaccine against cervical cancer, and we are hoping to expand that programme, especially in the populations and areas where it is most needed and can have the greatest impact,” said Dr. Persaud. He noted that in the past 50 years the health sector has brought things like measles, rubella and polio to the point of elimination. And according to him too, “we are actually, in this 50th year, certifying elimination of many of those diseases right now in Guyana.”
“Yellow Fever is also one of those that we have done very well in terms of pushing back, but there is still some work to be done in the other areas, and of course, there are new challenges,” the CMO observed.
Some of the areas that the health sector will be paying close attention to in the future, according to him, will include general infectious diseases and even improving life expectancy rates, which currently suggest that women are outliving men.
But according to Dr. Persaud, even as the way is charted forward, keen attention must also be focused on mental health including suicide, accidents, violence and injuries, which have been severely impacting the health sector. These, according to him, have popped up as major health issues, and must be addressed going forward. And he is convinced that Guyana is on course for a better 50 years of health care aided by its health strategy – Health Vision 20/20 – which encapsulates measures to improve the delivery of health care.

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