BY the end of this year, the Comprehensive Child and Young Health Programme (CYHP), which was launched in August of last year and saw over 11,000 nursery school children being evaluated for various medical issues, will be expanded to include primary school children.

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony made this revelation on Tuesday when he also announced a comprehensive and ambitious plan to eradicate cervical cancer as a public health concern.

Minister Anthony gave a brief overview of the CYHP, stating that it enabled the screening of nursery school children throughout Guyana and was supported by Hess Corporation and Mount Sinai Health Systems in New York, United States of America (USA).

He said: “Last year, we started out at the nursery level. We started to screen children, we are checking their eyes, we’re checking their ears, we’re checking their mouth and we do an overall check-up for them. We included making sure that they have the age-appropriate vaccines.”

According to him, the government intends to continue in nursery schools and launch the programme in primary schools in 2024. “We have a target this year of reaching 87,000 children.”

He pleaded with health officials to make use of the opportunity to discuss vaccinations and other health issues with the children they are screening in schools.

According to Minister Anthony, the government has already allocated funds in the 2024 Budget to treat children for free in the event that any health problems are found in them.

In the most recent screening cycle, it was discovered that several children needed treatment for skin rashes. Many of them received oral examinations, hearing aids, and spectacles.
According to the Health Minister, the Comprehensive Child and Young Health Programme works well with other ministry initiatives that aim to combat Guyana’s high rate of chronic non-communicable diseases—the number one cause of death and disability in the world.

The joint initiative of the Ministries of Health and Education aims to guarantee that children receive early screenings to identify any underlying diseases or problems.

The Ministry of Health is pleading with parents and guardians to support the initiative so that their child could excel academically, free from health constraints.