REGION Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) health officials have, through diligent work, been able to significantly reduce the number of malaria cases in the region from 833 in 2014 to 540 last year.

The vast majority of malaria cases in the Region are from the riverine forested community of the Pomeroon, and according to Dr Shemeer Reid, who works at the Charity Public Hospital, some of those cases are almost inevitable.

Pomeroon happens to be an ideal breeding ground for mosquitos,
Dr Reid told the Guyana Chronicle, and regional health authorities have long recognised the problems the environment poses, and have been regularly conducting fumigation exercises at villages in the Pomeroon. Treated mosquito nets are also distributed to villagers, he said.

Regional health officials have also been conducting regular malaria education awareness outreaches in Pomeroon villages, and flyers explaining how villagers should protect themselves against the virus are given to residents.

Malaria is a serious virus, Dr Reid explained; and because of the high number of cases, the region is paying priority attention to addressing it. Admittedly, the Pomeroon community does not have a centre to treat infection of the virus, so when someone gets infected there, they have to travel to the Charity Hospital to get treatment; but doctors there treat every case with due diligence.

The 27-year-old Dr Reid has been stationed at the Charity Hospital for about a year, but has been moving around, doing stints at several locations, including in Lethem.

FEW NEW CASES
Dr Reid told this publication that, on average, she treats about 10 malaria patients per week, and most of the cases are recurring cases. Seldom, she said, are there serious cases, and every month there are about three new cases.
About 30 patients with the virus visit the hospital every week, and the majority of them have mixed infections.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium. Human malaria is caused by four different species of Plasmodium: P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. vivax.

The malaria parasite is transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito, which bites mainly between dusk and dawn.

The WHO noted that malaria is an acute febrile illness with an incubation period of at least seven days. Thus a febrile illness developing less than one week after the first possible exposure is not malaria.

The world’s health authority said the most severe form of malaria is caused by P. falciparum. Variable clinical features include fever, chills, headache, muscular aching and weakness, vomiting, cough, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

The initial symptoms, which may be mild, may not be easy to recognise as being due to malaria, the WHO pointed out.

Dr Reid told the Guyana Chronicle that most persons infected are miners, and before they visit the interior, they purchase Artecom, a drug used to treat the falciparum malaria, but most of them are infected with vivax.

Vivax malaria is less virulent than falciparum, but can lead to death due to pathological enlargement of the spleen.

Most of the patients who visit the Charity Hospital, Dr Reid said, complain of fever and headaches, and the Artecom drug does not work on persons infected with vivax.

COMBINATION

Most of the cases, she said, present a combination of vivax and falciparum malaria, and patients are treated and advised how to protect themselves before being sent away.

The hospital has occasionally been affected by a shortage of drugs; but, Dr Reid told this publication, at no time has there ever been a shortage of malaria drugs, as priority attention is given to combating the virus.

At the Charity Hospital, this publication met 52-year-old Michael Boyet, a resident of the Pomeroon who is suffering from malaria infection and has been admitted for observation. Boyet, a miner, related that he became infected a year ago, while working at a gold mine in Region One. He was initially treated at the Port Kaituma Hospital, but was referred to the Charity Hospital.

The father of six said he got infected because, in his mining camp, there was no treated net and the environment was very unclean. Several other miners at his camp, he said, were infected by the virus. According to him, infection in mining areas can be kept to a minimum if regional health officials (RHOs) pay regular visits to mining camps.

He said at one time RHOs used to visit mining camps, but they suddenly stopped. He is urging the region to restart the medical health outreaches to mining areas.