Tuberculosis patients are benefiting from an expanded support programme involving the government and the numbers of new cases of the chronic bacterial disease in the prisons has fallen to the lowest figure in 19 years.
In a recent interview with the Department of Public Information (DPI), the Programme Coordina-tor of the National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP), Dr Jeetendra Mohanlall disclosed that from 2012, the numbers of prison infections have been gradually decreasing; with 2018 recording the lowest amount of new cases in 19 years. In fact, at the end of 2018, only eight new cases of Tuberculosis were diagnosed in prisons. This amounts to a significant reduction in new cases usually detected annually in the prisons.
With the low number of TB cases in prisons, the NTP is even closer to achieving and fulfilling its END TB strategy which seeks to eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2030. There are currently four prisons in Guyana: Lusignan, Mazaruni, New Amsterdam and Georgetown.
