Guyana will soon test for Zika
The Zika virus is transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquito
The Zika virus is transmitted by Aedes Aegypti mosquito

By Clifford Stanley

THE Ministry of Public Health is taking urgent action to develop Guyana’s capacity for testing for Zika, the mosquito-borne disease.Public Health Minister Dr George Norton has disclosed that at least one staffer is to be sent to Trinidad, in a matter of days, to receive the required training.
The person identified will also be trained to test for other vector-borne diseases, such as Chikungunya, among others, he said.

“We have the equipment to conduct the tests in Guyana, the only problem is the lack of trained staff,” Dr Norton said.

He said that Trinidad had made an offer to train Guyanese ever since the Chikungunya outbreak, but for some reason or the other, the previous administration had failed to take it up.

“So now we are not taking any chances, and we are dealing with it as a matter of urgency,” he said.

Dr Norton confirmed on Friday that, apart from the single case of Zika discovered here last month, there had not been any other discovered instance of the vector-borne disease. He said that samples had been sent to labs in Trinidad since that single instance, and all have been returned negative. He said, too, that in terms of control, Guyana has the upper hand, having fought mosquitoes for a number of years.

“We have a great degree of control because we have been fighting malaria all our lives, and this is another mosquito. We fought Aedes for yellow fever, we worked on it for dengue, and it is not that it caught us napping. Our vector control had things in place,” Dr Norton said.

He added: “Where we were caught off-guard is that, for some reason or the other, no one was sent to be trained. And this was offered before we came into office. But now we are sending a person, so that we can have the capacity to react more quickly in any event.”

He said that the Ministry will continue to use mosquito traps, and to fog and apply other vector-control measures in targeted communities.

Noting that Zika poses little risk to most people, Dr Norton said: “It is nothing compared to Chikungunya, for example. With Chikungunya, the pain is so severe you can hardly walk. (and there are) fever, rashes headaches and so on. With Zika, (there is) just a slight headache or fever; nothing much.”

Zika, however, poses a particular danger to pregnant women. The big problem with Zika is its link to a type of birth defect called microcephaly, in which infants are born with small skulls, incomplete brain development, deformed limbs and other severe birth defects.
This happens if the mother contracts Zika in the first three months of pregnancy, Dr Norton related.

He said that some countries, responding to the pandemic, have urged women to postpone pregnancy until the disease is brought under control. Guyana will, however, not go that route, he said, adding that as a last resort, abortions could be undertaken.

He again repeated his call to communities in all ten administrative regions to ramp up their mosquito control efforts by getting rid of stagnant water and heaps of trash — which are breeding grounds for the Aedes mosquitoes, the carriers of the Zika virus.

The Zika outbreak has been particularly bad in neighbouring Brazil, and the Public Health Ministry will also collaborate with the Ministry of Natural Resources and other agencies to ensure that the virus does not cross the border from Brazil into Guyana.

 

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