GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – The Ministry of Health is making progress in eradicating filaria, leprosy, and other “neglected diseases,” while tuberculosis cases are also on the decline, according to Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony.
He said cases of filaria have fallen significantly, and Guyana is now closer to eradicating the disease.
“I’m happy to report good results in our ten administrative regions. In eight of those, we are not finding the parasite, and we only have now two regions where we have to place a lot more focus in those two regions, which are four and three; there are specific areas within those two regions where we have to put some more focus on,” Dr. Anthony said.
He noted that those areas would be targeted with mass drug administration, and next year, the international evaluation team will be coming to evaluate Guyana.
Dr Anthony expressed confidence that Guyana will get good results and is on the trajectory to eliminating filaria.
With regards to leprosy, this is also on the decline.
“We have seen a decline in cases, there has been a substantial decline, and we are monitoring the patients individually, and for those in the households with those patients, we want to introduce a program where we can give prophylaxis to those people in the household so we break the transmission chain,” the health minister noted, adding that the initiative will be started this year.
Leishmaniasis, trypanosomiasis, and worms are also targeted as part of the five neglected diseases in Guyana. These conditions inflict severe health burdens on the world’s poorest people.
“We are confident that the five neglected infections that we have identified, we are very confident that by 2030 we will be able to eliminate them from Guyana,” Dr Anthony stated.
Tuberculosis is also on the decline in Guyana; he added: “If I recall correctly, we had 500 patients that had TB, and as of last year, we had less than 40 patients and previously seen cases of multiple drug resistance TB; we have bought second-line treatments for those patients. We had less than five last year, so in fact, what we are seeing is a decline in TB cases.”
Dr Anthony noted that the ministry has mapped where the cases are coming from and actively worked to treat those patients.
“One of the attractions to this o program is that, as you know, they must be on treatment for six to nine months. We have noticed that some persons are homeless who have TB, and we have been encouraging those persons to come to the TB department, where we provide them with hot meals. and for most of those persons who have been coming, we have been able to work with them, and we have seen good results,” he
There are also provisions for training for the departments working on eliminating these diseases.
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