SATURDAY was Malaria Day in the Americas 2010. It was envisioned that it would be a platform upon which countries of the Region can begin to engage in a year-round aggressive campaign against a disease that has wreaked havoc in countries around the world, especially Amazonian countries. According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) specifically, Malaria Day in the Americas seeks to attain the following objectives: * Improve the communication process and extension of advocacy work to all stakeholders and target audiences.

* Enhance visibility/interest in malaria in the Region of Americas and the global scourge that the disease brings to peoples of the world.

* Increase awareness and understanding of the key issues among target audience/population

* Catalyse change of attitudes and modification of behaviours

* Generate advocacy/support from the public, policy makers, clients and strategic partners

* Encourage increased and enduring support to efforts against malaria, including the elimination of local transmission in areas where such is feasible.

The Regional Strategic Plan for Malaria in the Americas 2006–2010 highlights communications and advocacy as among the key issues in the malaria fight that needed increased emphasis in the Region. As PAHO implements the strategic plan, the Media Communications, Publications and Advocacy Plan for Malaria was developed and consolidated in May 2006.  A key element of the plan is the commemoration of Malaria Day in the countries of the Americas which campaigns for increased advocacy and commitment among stakeholders and draws communities and the general population into concrete actions that contribute to the achievement of goals and targets in all levels – global, regional, country, and community.
This year’s theme, Counting Malaria Out – Promoting Best Practices and Collaboration, is intended as it says to use best practices in an effort to fully eradicate the disease. In Guyana, the Roll Back Malaria Initiative” (RBM) of prompt, accurate diagnosis and immediate treatment is in use. Since 2009, RBM partners continue the campaign to intensify global efforts to:
* Implement the Global Malaria Action Plan (GMAP)
* Reach the first important malaria milestone of universal coverage by 2010
* Strengthen health systems in endemic countries for the long-term goals of sustained control and disease elimination.
As part of that GMAP, countries like Guyana, in order to achieve universal coverage by 2010, the GMAP requires the following interventions:
* More than 700 million insecticide-treated bed nets – half of those in Africa
* More than 200 million of doses of effective treatment
* Indoor spraying for around 200 million homes annually
* Approximately 1.5 billion diagnostic tests annually

In addition, the Americas continue to pursue its commitment to global targets beyond 2010, including the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), towards the long term objective of stopping local malaria transmission in areas where such is deemed possible. Malaria is among the diseases identified as feasible to be eliminated in a number of countries in the Region by PAHO.
In the Guyana context especially, work has been ongoing in the fight for the eradication of malaria. The unique geographic and topographic nature of the interior of the country means that Guyana, more than most other places in the Americas, is especially challenged as the excess of water in the hinterland forested regions allows for the breeding of malaria-infected mosquitoes.
According to the Vector Control Services Department of the Ministry of Health, tasked with the prevention and control of this dreaded disease, three species of malaria are now found in Guyana
(a)   Plasmodium vivax
(b)   Plasmodium malariae (re-introduction in 2004)
(c)   Plasmodium falciparum

The Department notes that the preponderance of Malaria in the interior of Guyana is due in large part to the increased logging and mining activities throughout the areas, especially in Regions One, Seven and Eight, where most of the itinerant mining and logging operations occur in the far, difficult to traverse, and virtually inaccessible areas. The logging and mining activities contribute some 90 percent of the total number of malaria cases. The difficulty, the department says, lies in the fact that the vector mosquito, the Anopheles darling,i can live in the wild independent of man and therefore its eradication is as virtually impossible in the tropical jungle of Guyana as elsewhere.
Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy had earlier expressed concern over the increase in malaria cases for this year. What is troubling is that virtually more than 50 percent of the camps have no nets. The Health Ministry distributed more than 80,000 nets in the hinterland, yet many camps and homes do not use this protection and this year another round of net distribution continues.
It has been recommended that persons only procure medications that are within the malaria guidelines, as the conditions of non-compliance, broken or interrupted treatments – all favour the development and stabilization of drug sensitivity that is either resistance or tolerance. The Vector Control Department believes that this aspect of malaria control is probably the most difficult and serious and has compounded the problem of determination and differentiation of which is a new case from a recrudescence or relapse. (GINA)