THE Health Ministry’s Vector Control Services department (under the National Malaria Control Programme) is making a major investment in strengthening its response to diagnosis and treatment of malaria in Guyana.

To this end, the Malaria Control Programme, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO), recently trained some 25 medical technicians in malaria microscopy, through which it could be quickly diagnosed if a patient has malaria, and what type it is, thereby speeding up the treatment process. In this way, patients’ waiting time can be considerably reduced.
The training, facilitated at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory in the compound of the Georgetown Public Hospital, was conducted in two batches, each of one week’s duration.
Sessions were conducted by trainers Mrs. Anne Wilburg-Linton and Ms. Rena Marks from the National Malaria Control Programme, and participants were drawn from regional hospitals and health centres, including  The National Public Health Reference Library (NPHRL) in Georgetown; the New Amsterdam Public Hospital; West Demerara Regional Hospital; Linden Hospital Complex; Mahaicony Diagnostic Centre; Port Mourant Hospital, Region 6 and Kwakwani.
Head of the Vector Control Services of the National Malaria Control Centre, Dr. Reyaud Rahman, who spoke with the Sunday Chronicle, stressed the value of the microscopy training to the general diagnosis, treatment, and control of malaria, describing it as the gold standard for diagnosis of the disease.
He outlined that training comes in response to the need for an early diagnosis and early treatment of malaria.
Said Dr.Rahman, “Our goal, when we treat malaria, is to treat as soon as possible. We aim for early diagnosis and early treatment basically. So, if we stick to that, we are operating in the best interest of the patient.”
Dr. Rahman agreed that, over time, it was observed that visiting the Georgetown Hospital to get tested for malaria could sometimes be a very frustrating experience. The patient accesses the service directly from the Vector Control Specialty Centre on Middle Street. That facility sees and treats people from 08:00 hrs to 16:30 hrs Monday to Friday, and offers diagnostic as well as treatment services – basically, it is a ‘One stop Shop’.
Nevertheless, for persons experiencing an emergency, or who are otherwise constrained to access testing for malaria outside of the hours when the Middle Street Vector Control Service is open, it is a different experience.  They may be seen at the GPH Emergency Room, located within the Accident and Emergency Unit on Quamina Street.
But even though a patient with malaria-like symptoms may be seen at that Emergency Room, there is currently no system in place to determine just what type of malaria the patient has, which is mandatory if the patient is to be treated appropriately.
Malaria is a disease caused by the presence of very small parasites in the blood. It is spread by the ‘anopheles’ mosquito. But the good news is that it is both preventable and treatable.
In Guyana, there are three types of malaria: falciparium, vivax and milariae. There are also cases of persons having ‘mixed malaria infection’, meaning that they may have a combination of the three types.
Signs and symptoms of the disease include ague; chills; headache; body pain; fever, sweating, and loss of appetite. Because the Emergency Room at the GPHC until now lacks the capacity to diagnose for malaria, if seen there, it is necessary for the patient’s smear to be sent to the Middle Street Malaria Unit, which is the specialty department, for diagnosis; which means that treatment would be delayed until that unit is open to the public.
That Centre also treats dengue and other vector-borne diseases. “So, by offering training in microscopy for technicians working within the health system, the capacity of the Ministry of Health to provide diagnostic services for malaria would be boosted, Dr. Rahman said. He emphasized: “The reason for this course is to have the patients not get frustrated.
In the past, he recalled, patients would have to wait at the GPHC’s Emergency Room for a considerable period of time, and when they feel a bit better, (even if it’s the following morning), they’d be sent over to the Malaria (Specialty) Department on Middle Street to get another smear done to determine what type of malaria they have. “So what we are doing is cutting that waiting time off,” he stressed.
Training technicians as microscopists would now be able to jump-start a new and efficient system of diagnosing and treating persons at the GPHC Emergency Room and other health facilities in the regions.
In allocating newly trained staff, the GPHC Emergency Room is to be given priority, so as to ensure the process there is rolled out expeditiously and persons are treated by doctors without undue delay.
The impending system will eliminate need for the emergency room referring such patients to the Middle Street Specialty Unit, which on an average working day sees between 80 and 120 persons seeking to determine their status, Dr. Rahman said.