Latest update January 1st, 2025 1:00 AM
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Malaria cases reduced by 15 percent in two years – Minister Volda Lawrence
Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence.
Between 2015 and 2016, the Ministry of Public Health was able to record a near 15 percent reduction in malaria cases.
The malaria state of affairs translated to 13,245 cases in 2015 but by 2016, it had dipped to 11,149, according to Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence.
This reduction comes at a time when the Ministry has been working to build its capacity to improve the general health and wellbeing of the entire population.
This saw the implementation of the national standard treatment guidelines and supporting protocols for managing diseases.
In so doing, the Ministry has been able to adjust and update its national malaria treatment guidelines and moves were made also to put in place a national malaria oversight committee to help combat malaria.
To help realise its malaria reduction goal, Government in its 2017 fiscal estimates allocated the sum of $85 million for the procurement of Long Lasting Insecticide Nets [LLIN] to facilitate the roll out of a mass distribution administration [MDA].
According to Minister Lawrence, the preliminary data for the MDA is 85 percent.
Based on the plan announced by the Ministry, the mass distribution of nets will be done every three years in Guyana. The distribution commenced earlier this year but continuous net distributions were slated to continue at health facilities across the nation.
The distributions, Minister Lawrence revealed, were designed to be supported with an Information Education and Communications [IEC] campaign in response to the challenge of having limited access to and use of this important malaria prevention tool in the country.
This approach is in keeping with an existing National Strategic Plan 2015-2020 for the malaria programme in Guyana. The Strategic Plan was drafted with the intention of optimising and building upon the lessons learned from previous periods and recent years of programme implementation.
The Strategic Plan therefore, is one that seeks to lay out the foundation for eliminating the local transmission of the disease in low endemic regions of Guyana.
It has outlined as a goal under the Strategic Priority Four, the need to optimise the distribution and use of long lasting insecticide nets in malaria affected communities. The main target areas are Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.
During the course of last year, some 10,000 nets were distributed through health facilities across the 10 Administrative Regions.
Minister Lawrence had shared her optimism that this number would be surpassed this year.
But according to the Minister, “The Government and its international partners and donor agencies cannot do it alone. We count on the involvement of each citizen of our beloved country to join us in eliminating mosquito-breeding sites, especially around mining and logging camps.”
Malaria is transmitted by the female anopheles mosquitoes. Its symptoms include shaking chills that can range from moderate to severe, high fever, profuse sweating, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and anaemia.
In its efforts to heighten detection of malaria during the course of the past year, the Ministry had rolled out a pilot project which saw the training of miners in Region Eight to use malaria rapid testing kits and to administer treatment for uncomplicated cases of malaria.
Ninety-six miners from mining areas such as Black Water, Jumbie Creek, Micobie, Kanawaruk were trained.
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