-424 cases for the year
With 424 dengue cases recorded for the year, Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy has warned that a serious outbreak is likely unless citizens take responsibility to keep their environment clean.
“We will have an outbreak, I am cautioning people, we will have it unless we begin to do something,” Minister Ramsammy told reporters Wednesday, when asked for an update. He revealed that up to last week most of the dengue cases were recorded in Georgetown, East Coast and Lethem, although the numbers have gone down following the fogging in both Georgetown and Lethem. The minister noted that for the same period last year, there were only 108 cases recorded. He said while there were cases that were not being recorded, there is a “genuine increase” not only in Guyana but in all countries of the Americas.
According to Ramsammy, over the last three months the ministry treated more than 3000 homes by focusing on treating the water in tanks and the number one thing that had to be treated were old tyres. “I can only educate people, I can’t come and remove the tanks, [and] I can’t remove the tyres and so on. Dengue would come at the end of the day not because of what we do but because of what we each do. While we have been making some inroads in protecting we are not going to be able to protect unless in this case all of us do it together,” he said.
Fogging is expected to be done soon on the East Coast while Georgetown will be fogged every three months. Ramsammy explained that fogging would help for a few hours as it kills only mosquitoes that are on the outside of homes and buildings.
Almost two months after a suspected dengue death was recorded in Guyana, Ramsammy said that the ministry is yet to receive the test results that would confirm dengue was the cause of death. The person, a female who was associated with a popular Georgetown restaurant, had succumbed early in April at a private institution.
At that time, Ramsammy had said his ministry was investigating the death but that they would first have to ascertain whether the woman had indeed died from dengue. He had said while persons may be diagnosed with dengue it does not mean the disease caused their death.
The minister had said that if indeed the woman died from dengue it would have been from dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF), which was deadly. While Guyana has seen DHF deaths before, the minister said, they were traced to other countries as the persons were frequent travellers. He added that the ministry would have had to ascertain the person’s travel history and if in fact the woman was in Guyana all the time “then we would have to take it very seriously” as it would mean that Guyana has DHF.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website, dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four dengue viruses. It occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world and symptoms appear three to 14 days after the infective bite. The website said that symptoms range from a mild fever to incapacitating high fever with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and a rash. There are no specific antiviral medicines for dengue but it is important to maintain hydration.
Use of acetylsalicylic acid (e.g. aspirin) and non- steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. Ibuprofen) is not recommended.
It was stated that DHF (fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding) is a potentially lethal complication, affecting mainly children. Early clinical diagnosis and careful clinical management by experienced physicians and nurses increase survival of patients.
There are four distinct, but closely related, viruses that cause dengue. Recovery from infection by one provides lifelong immunity against that virus but confers only partial and transient protection against subsequent infection by the other three viruses.
That is why the drainage system should be fixed immediately. With current flooding, there will be water borne diseses as well. Seems like the country is headed backwards.
Rains = FLOODING = mosquitoes + low pressure in potable water pipes + leaks + no Filters + barrels in the yard + no proper purification + garbage…….. Can someone continue? This is very repetitive. What is the best and cheapest means to educate people? RADIO!!
Is it only now that the minister of health realises that a dengue outbreak is imminent? This has been on the cards for sometime. At least everyone else knew that an outbreak was always likely.
In Lethem and its immediate environs, Dengue cases are now so normal that it is probably the most common illness around. Yet the health ministry issued a public release stating that there were only about 25 cases recorded in the location. This information is so misleading as to be laughable.
What does our honorable minister of health expect when the authorities simply bury their head in the sands and expect the disease to go away? If they had honestly faced up to this disease from the inception, rather than providing misleading information, then they may have been able to curb it before it became a major outbreak.
My neighbour collapsed a few weeks ago after complaining of feeling unwell.It was confirmed she had dengue.
… dengue ,,, has been in GUYANA since ???? and i’m sure that the GOVT then as is now ,, did the same thing that is to be done ,, suffice to say that ,, like ur body ,, when it’s ill is bcos of what u have ingested ,, be it solid or liquid ,, so too it is with ur environment ,,,,,, and no ! i will not again delve in to the base of cleanliness for grown adults to know that their environment if not kept CLEAN they will get sick ,, and may die from the illness !
and then u ask ,, well how is dengue wah comin fum de envirament dat ah din ingess ,, how dah mekin me sick ,, well is the filthy behavior that u create with leavin yuh garbage to rot whey yuh livin ,, dat causin de maskeyto to come alive an get hungry fuh blood ! de kine u gat ! warm an tasty !
the garbage left strewn in lethem ,, without due care by the community developers ,, and inhabitants should wake up ,,– and this goes for the coast landers too — one morning and find out dat everbadui got de blasted dengue !…..
de moral ???? esi lessen gud fuh dunce ! tell dem me seh suh !…
Michael
I agree that cleaning up the environment is a good start but standing water and not rotting garbage is the culprit for mosquitos.
Tell this to Corriverton and de rest whey dem leff ded hass an cow fuh ratten!!
…. standing water is the reason for the intense breeding of mosquitoes on the coast ,, a fact i learnt many decades ago ,, i think Miss Wong was my teacher at st.aloysius RC in berbice ,,
who taught us abt the life span of a mosquito ,, among other
facts ! how ever u look at it ,, things that affect all is their own doin !i don’t live there ,,, do u ?????????????????????
is dem own trash dat gon kill dem if dem nah gat EDUCASHAN !….
nah leh none badi fule yuh !…
My nephew is currently recovering from this terrible fever. His parents keep their yard clean and so does a couple of neighbours, but one neighbour who resides overseas, her land is a virtual jungle and mosquito haven. What can be done to force these people to clean up their land in situations like this?
I absolutely agree with NeNe about flooding and water borne diseases. Government’s responsibility to get in those areas and educate people, improve drainage and sanitation.
I survived dengue earlier this year and have spoken to numerous doctors who confirmed a high incidence of the disease. Unfortunately the Minister took the view then that we did not have an outbreak (read this and get back to me if you have that view too: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outbreak).
It is unbelievable that two months after a death we still can’t get confirmation – and fact is that I don’t believe this story. When the President himself disappeared for a week, I am almost certain that he had Dengue. But reports stated otherwise.
The Minister should ask himself whether fogging Georgetown every three months is enough given his own statement that “fogging would help for a few hours as it kills only mosquitoes that are on the outside of homes and buildings.”
Enough is not being done. There is little or no education programme on TV and Radio.