OVER 200 employees stationed at Guyana Manganese Inc.’s Matthews Ridge Mines in the North West District, will be screened by medical personnel as a precautionary measure following last week’s outbreak which resulted in the death of a Chinese national, Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence has disclosed.

Last week, while cleaning bat droppings from one of four tunnels at the mining site called “Rail Ends”, nine workers – eight Chinese nationals and one Guyanese, started experiencing pain, fever, headache and respiratory distress. On Saturday, one of the Chinese nationals died while receiving medical attention at the Pakera District Hospital in Matthews Ridge, while seven of the ailing men were air-dashed to the city for enhanced medical attention at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC). To date, approximately 18 persons from the mines have been medevaced to the city – the latest group of five was medevaced on Tuesday morning.

Approached for a comment on the issue on the sideline of a handing-over ceremony at the Square of the Revolution on Tuesday, Minister Lawrence told the Guyana Chronicle that cognisant of its responsibility to provide healthcare services to the people of Matthews Ridge and neighbouring communities in a safe environment, the Health Ministry took a decision to fully sanitise the Pakera District Hospital. It was closed temporarily but was reopened on Tuesday.

Another team of medical personnel, however, will be working out of a community centre in the area to screen the employees of Guyana Manganese Inc., – a subsidiary of Bosai Minerals Group Guyana Incorporated as a precautionary measure, the Health Minister further detailed. The Guyana Chronicle understands that there are approximately 100 Chinese nationals and 113 Guyanese nationals on the mining concession. Persons displaying similar symptoms to those hospitalised will be transferred to GPHC as a precautionary measure, and treated.

“We don’t want the overcrowding. We want to be able to assess those persons separately even as we provide the normal MCH, outpatient clinics to the members of the community,” Minister Lawrence explained.

CRITICAL CONDITION
She confirmed that of the total number of infected employees transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, to date, two from the initial group, have been diagnosed with leptospirosis. They remain in critical condition while the others are recovering.

“As we said, two are critical and those two were diagnosed with leptospirosis, and we are watching them closely. The others, they are not critical, the doctors are very happy at the positive signs that they are seeing,” Minister Lawrence said.

On Monday, the Public Health Ministry said while two of the patients have been diagnosed with leptospirosis, further tests are being conducted locally, and samples will also be sent overseas with support from the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for further testing to rule out other possible infections.

Based on the tests conducted thus far, the public health officials here have ruled out Swine Flu (H1N1), Zika, Chikungunya, Dengue, and Influenza A and B as possible causes of the recent spate of illnesses and death in Mathews Ridge, the Ministry of Health said. “Thus far there has been no evidence of person-to-person transmission of infection. It is noted that only persons who were directly exposed to one common area became ill,” it explained.

However, according to a reliable source close to the Health Ministry, the patients admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital are being “observed” for a number of ailments including Histoplasmosis, Ricketsial Infection, Toxic exposure, Hantavirus, Acute respiratory distress syndrome, Febrile syndrome, and Hemorrhagic Dengue.

Additionally, the Guyana Chronicle was informed that the environmental health team, which journeyed to Matthews Ridge on Sunday following the outbreak, is expected to conclude evaluation of the site soon.

Meanwhile, aviation authorities have reportedly urged all domestic airline operators to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which entails having all passengers from the interior location assessed by the medical personnel.

Guyana Manganese Inc. commenced preparatory work for manganese mining in 2017 and the operations represent an investment of approximately $500 Million. Exportation of the rare earth metal is expected to start by the end of 2019. The mine has a projected lifespan of 15 to 35 years depending on the rate of extraction, using open pit mining methods.

Manganese was first mined in Matthew’s Ridge in the 1950’s but later abandoned due to high costs and other factors. The increasing use of the rare earth metal in the production of high-tech equipment has seen the resuscitation of operations. Guyana is believed to have some of the world’s largest deposits of manganese.