Health sector forced to expand reach to battle dengue fever

Dec 31, 2019 News

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– persons encouraged to help reduce mosquito breeding sites

By virtue of being a tropical country suitable for the Aedes mosquito to thrive, Guyana is faced with arboviral diseases including the likes of dengue fever.

Arboviral diseases are viruses that are often transmitted through the bites of mosquitoes. Among those that the local Ministry of Public Health has been on guard for, through its Vector Control Services Unit, are Zika, Chikungunya, yellow fever and dengue fever.
However, dengue fever is the only arboviral disease that is currently manifesting at notable proportions here in Guyana, according to the Ministry’s Aedes Aegypti Focal Point Person, Dr Cassindra Alonzo-Ash.
“Thank God we do not have Chikungunya and Zika or Yellow Fever…but we still have the challenge of dengue, because we still have the Aedes mosquito,” said Dr. Alonzo-Ash.
To help combat the disease, she said that deliberate efforts are being made to collaborate with a number of organisations in hope of reducing the prevalence of dengue.
“We are trying to collaborate with as many persons as possible…recently we even had training with the Red Cross, which is willing to assist and has persons within the communities,” said Dr. Alonzo-Ash, who noted that this is an especially tactical move, since “we are not only seeing cases on the coast…”
The discovery of cases in non-coastal areas could, however, be indicative of an improved surveillance system, Dr. Alonzo-Ash noted.
“I have been running around to get my data and we have been seeing cases in Region Seven, Nine…So we can’t say dengue is on the coast alone anymore, it is all over. Remember Region Nine is neighbouring to Brazil, and you will have the issue of dengue.”
She however noted “We should thank God and count ourselves blessed, because we are right next to Brazil, and we don’t have Yellow Fever too… because of the very good vaccination coverage that we have in Guyana, we shouldn’t be seeing persons with Yellow Fever,” said Dr. Alonzo-Ash.
Yellow fever, an acute viral haemorrhagic disease, has been wreaking havoc in a number of countries, including some in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among the countries affected are two neighbouring countries, Brazil and Venezuela, and Guyana has been wary of imported cases. But simultaneously it has been battling the impact of dengue fever. Despite best efforts trained on this disease, Dr. Alonzo-Ash admitted that “Dengue still remains an issue because, remember our port of entries are porous…that is why we will have to monitor it.”
Making reference to the tactical move to collaborate to fight dengue, Dr. Alonzo-Ash said that it is imperative to ensure that persons employ actions that can help to rid their environment of the mosquito vectors. “We need to see changes in our culture and in our attitudes…just simply keeping our environment clean,” said Dr. Alonzo-Ash.
The Aedes-type mosquitoes are also called “container breeding” mosquitoes because they are known to breed in and around homes in containers of standing water. By properly disposing of containers in which mosquito can breed or by covering standing water, persons can help to protect themselves from the dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Embracing this approach is important since, according to Dr. Alonzo-Ash, the disease is a serious one which can present with four serotypes, each of which has different interactions with the antibodies in human blood serum.
“If I get infected with serotype one, and later on I get infected again with the same type, I may not feel that ill like the first time, but if I go to a Region that may have serotype two and I get infected with that, I may develop complications,” Dr. Alonzo-Ash explained.
While the early signs of dengue may include high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, and skin rash, once untreated haemorrhagic complications can develop, the doctor revealed.
These complications could include bleeding of the gums and/or nostrils, vomiting as many as three times per day, swollen and/or tenderness of the tummy and even abnormal bleeding from the vagina. Once these develop, Dr. Alonzo-Ash said that “you must seek medical assistance, because we have a culture in Guyana where we think we can fight anything…we don’t want to go to the hospital and tend to stay home. So when you see these signs [of dengue] we encourage persons to seek attention,” said Dr. Alonzo-Ash.
She emphasised that “dengue doesn’t have a specific treatment like malaria…we have to treat it according to your signs and symptoms”.

 

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