Dengue cases climbing in Guyana

Aug 20, 2024 News

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony

Kaieteur News – Guyana has recorded in excess of 8000 dengue cases thus far, according to information obtained from Ministry of Health.

The cases of the infection have grown significantly within the past two weeks when the Ministry had about 6000 cases of the vector-borne disease on file. During a recent interview, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony revealed that twenty-six thousand tests were done last year compared to 29,000 so far for 2024. The public health sector is testing more persons for the disease.

Dr Anthony revealed that as of recent, the ministry conducted 30,273 tests for dengue, with 8,021 returning positive results. He noted that out of the positive cases, 894 were admitted to the hospital, with five deaths. “We are doing more testing and we’re trying to find people as early as possible,” the health minister said.

Dr Anthony noted too that the Ministry of Health is ramping up its efforts to combat the disease by empowering Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) and municipalities to carry out their own fogging operations. With dengue cases on the rise, he emphasised the need to interrupt the mosquito’s life cycle to prevent the spread of dengue. He called on citizens to eliminate containers and even old tires that might accumulate water, which mosquitoes can use as breeding sites. To help tackle the issue, Dr. Anthony explained that right now, NDCs and municipalities would have to depend on the Health Ministry to conduct fogging exercises in their communities.

“The idea here is that in every NDC and every municipality, we want to make sure that they have the equipment to do their own fogging…We’re going to give them the fogging machine and train them how to use the chemicals and the personal protection equipment”, the health minister explained. He added, “It is going to be a totally different way of how we are approaching fogging and trying to interrupt the life cycle of the mosquito.”

Earlier this month, Dr Anthony disclosed that the Health Ministry has intensified mosquito eradication by fogging communities every two to three weeks.

He then that “That has taken a big toll on our budget but we have to do it and so you’ll see that as part of our supplementary that’s going to Parliament soon,” Dr Anthony said. To this end, Dr Anthony revealed the Ministry has benefitted from a portion of the recently approved supplementary funding. He said that a portion from that sum would be going towards further enhancing the local fogging capabilities.

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