THE People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is not at all happy with the way the Ministry of Public Health is fighting the Zika virus, and feels Guyana’s best bet is to call in the experts.

“The Government should immediately request a team of PAHO/WHO experts to visit Guyana soonest, to assess the current state of affairs with respect to the existence of the Zika virus in our national territory, and the potential for its spread countrywide,” said Party General Secretary Clement Rohee yesterday.

He told a press conference: “Concerns have been raised about the health sector’s capacity to cope with the detection and potential spread of the virus throughout the national territory.”

While alleging that the issue is compounded by the lack of testing facilities in Guyana for persons suspected to have contracted the virus, Mr Rohee said Guyana’s having to send blood samples overseas for testing is a clear indication of the country’s lack of laboratory capacity to detect and ensure accurate clinical diagnosis and treatment for patients, and to track the whereabouts of the mosquito that causes the virus.

The incident at reference, he said, occurred on January 4, 2016 when a blood sample was sent to Trinidad. The result, he said, did not come back until some eight days later — on January 12, 2016 to be precise. But what is seemingly even more troubling for Mr Rohee is that it was not until January 14 that the National Assembly was informed of the occurrence.

Said Mr Rohee, “It is to be noted that long before the detected case in Guyana in January, it was known by the Granger Administration that the virus was present in the national territories of all of Guyana’s neighbouring countries, with 3,500 suspected cases in Brazil alone; thousands in Suriname; and large numbers in Venezuela.”

Claiming that the development should have alerted the Government to fear the worst in the event of the virus getting into Guyana, Mr Rohee said that while pregnant women are the persons at greatest risk, “no public information whatsoever is available as to whether special detection and preventative measures are in place at both private and public ante-natal clinics in Guyana to cater especially for mothers-to-be.”

Mr Rohee also criticised the fogging exercises as being sparse and inconsistent. He added that no geo-scientific methodology is being applied to conducting these exercises, apart from the fact that there is no publicised schedule of fogging in the electronic or print media for the information and guidance of the general public.

In addition, information about quarantine measures and facilities, he stressed, is lacking. The public must be advised whether this is in place, and the widest publicity must be given to educational programmes, household inspections and recommended preventative exercises that should be taken by residents in both town and country.

In the circumstances, he is calling on the relevant authorities to secure assistance from the Global Outbreak and Response Network (GOHRA) in the areas of institutional strengthening and capacity building to detect the whereabouts, circulation, monitoring and surveillance of the Zika virus in Guyana.