Disease control and other related functions are practically non-existent at Guyana’s border with Brazil, where the Port Health Authority (PHA) office remains mostly closed.
Staff at the multi-purpose complex at the border told this newspaper that they would perform some of the functions of the PHA, in relation to plants and some meats entering the country. Concerned citizens said that the absence of this service places the entire Region Nine and further afield at great risk.
When Stabroek News contacted the Regional Environmental Health Officer at her office recently on the issue, she declined comment and referred this newspaper to a “Dr James” whose office is at Liliendaal. Several phone calls to the office and cell phone numbers provided proved futile.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that a PHA has some specific functions which include but are not limited to: prevention and control of diseases in accordance with international health regulations; inspection of control points along the border; monitoring hygiene and sanitation standards at border crossing points; establishing ‘health posts’ to assist travellers in need; making travel health assessments and giving health advice and information; inspecting and issuing permits for the importation and exportation of human corpses, infectious agents, and biological materials; inspecting all food items imported and exported and issuing clearance certificates.
Most of the chicken and chicken products consumed in the Rupununi are imported from Brazil and the lack of monitoring places residents at great danger of consuming unwholesome food items, a source said.
The source said that not too long ago a Brazilian homemade sausage imported for sale in the Rupununi was observed with a greenish colour on some parts. Other residents have also expressed concern pointing out that a particular store in Lethem had been selling expired goods to unsuspecting consumers.
The source also expressed the view that corpses traverse the border quite regularly and this now poses a further risk to the residents.
Given reports of an outbreak of Yellow Fever in Brazil and an outbreak of Dengue in Guyana and the fact that these diseases are both transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the source said, “The Port Health Authority will therefore be useful in observing travellers from both sides so as to isolate them and refer them for the relevant treatment. The last thing we want here in Guyana is a Yellow Fever epidemic.”
