THE Public Health Ministry is currently awaiting the arrival of ‘testing kits’ to commence testing for Chikungunya, Zika and other such viruses, now that the trained medical technologists are on the ground.In an interview with Guyana Chronicle on Thursday, Chief Medical Officer (CEO) Dr. Shamdeo Persaud said that a number of kits have been obtained from an international organization, and the Ministry is awaiting their arrival.

Two medical technologists have been trained already to test for the viruses. With the support of the World Health Organisation/Pan American Health Orgnisation (WHO/PAHO), the Guyanese technologists underwent training at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad.

CARPHA has been networking with other Member States to combat Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases. Recently, it collaborated with the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct a regional laboratory training workshop in Molecular Diagnostic Detection and Surveillance of Arboviruses. During that programme, six countries were trained in the use of the Trioplex kit from CDC.

As a result of the Zika outbreak, the CDC issued an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for the Trioplex Real-time RT-PCR Assay – a diagnostic tool for Zika virus that is being distributed to qualified laboratories.

The assay allows doctors to tell if an individual is currently infected with Chikungunya, dengue, or Zika using one test, instead of having to perform three separate tests to determine which infection a person may have.

Guyana has been sending samples to CARPHA to test for Zika and Chikungunya in the absence of trained medical technologists and the required kits. However, this will soon come to an end with these barriers being gradually being removed.

In addition to boosting its capacity to test for Zika and other related viruses, the Public Health Ministry has been distributing thousands of chemically-treated bed nets.