With a 95% vaccination coverage for yellow fever in Guyana annually, the need for capturing the other 5% has been stressed.
The Department of Public Information (DPI) said that the PAHO/WHO office in Guyana is hosting a hands-on training on epizootic and vector integrated surveillance for yellow fever.
PAHO/WHO Country Representative to Guyana, Dr. William Adu-Krow was reported as saying that intense surveillance is paramount to ensuring the Guyanese population is safeguarded from the disease. “Even if we have a 95% coverage for yellow fever that means for every birth cohort in four years, we have about 20% without effective vaccination”, he told the training programme.
He added that this year three countries in the Americas: Bolivia, Brazil and Peru reported confirmed yellow fever cases occurring between December 2018 and February 2019. In 2018, there were five countries and territories in the region of the Americas that reported confirmed cases of yellow fever: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana and Peru.”
Adu-Krow noted that Guyana has been free of yellow fever since 1968. “Let it be said in many years to come that we here, were a party to making sure that it stays the same”, he added,
DPI said that Dr. Dwight Walrond, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Livestock and Development Authority noted that his agency’s role in the intensified surveillance agenda is vital. He also pointed out how Guyana is at risk.
“A lot of foreign exchange that is earned by Guyana is earned through wildlife trade so our staff daily would interact with these primates. In addition to that, there are other animals which they are exposed to and you might want to ask the question how do we deal with this, how do we know when to test for ‘x’ disease, what samples should be taken and unfortunately that is determined by the importing countries.”
The four-day hands-on training workshop is being held at Cara Lodge.
According to the World Health Organisation yellow fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease transmitted by infected mosquitoes.
Symptoms of yellow fever include fever, headache, jaundice, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting and fatigue.
A small number of patients who contract the virus develop severe symptoms and approximately half of those die within 7 to 10 days.
