Malaria: Is it taken for granted by Guyanese?

Talk to your doctor about how to prevent malaria while traveling. You may need to take prescription medicine before, during, and after your trip to prevent malaria, especially if you are visiting low-altitude areas. Areas of Guyana with risk of malaria: All areas. Rare cases in cities of Amsterdam and Georgetown. 

The above information was taken from the website of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, under ‘Health Information for Travelers to Guyana.’ And there are many more websites and information centers that provide information for travelers, some organizations, especially the travel agencies even have departments set aside for this.  

Furthermore, in 2017, there were 219 million cases of malaria worldwide, with 435 000 deaths and approximately 3.1 billion US dollars were invested into funding Malaria projects worldwide. This information tells us that Malaria is a serious concern for many people as well as organizations around the world, but is it treated the same way by Guyanese? Or is it taken for granted? Regardless of how it is treated, Guyana remains one of the countries where the mosquito-borne disease is widespread.

Recently, a few persons were asked a simple question: ‘Why doesn’t Guyanese people take Malaria seriously?’ A nurse at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital said “Most patients think that is curable while others think that it wouldn’t kill them.” A third year pharmacy student attached to the University of Guyana responds “Because there is no stigma attached to the disease.”  Furthermore, response from the ordinary man “That ain’t really serious you know? They got tablets and so that will help you with that.” Other people on the streets were asked the same question, although the wording and structure of their responses varied, they were all saying the same thing basically, ‘We take Malaria for granted!’

Malaria, the mosquito borne disease affect human beings as well as other animals and is contracted through a single bite from an infected female Anopheles mosquito. This occurs because, the mosquito while drawing blood from a human’s body releases saliva to stop blood from clothing, which contains the virus. According to the World Health Organization, this infectious disease is ‘caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium and human malaria is caused by four different species of Plasmodium: P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. vivax.’ For many people, it seems unrealistic that a single bite from a tiny insect like a mosquito can cause such a drastic change in a person’s health but it is factual.

Guyana, is famous for its vast forested areas (the hinterlands), where mosquitos and other endangered insects and animals thrive.  The climate in the hinterland regions are the perfect dwelling place for the Anopheles mosquitoes, since it is much cooler and conducive for their growth. Also the unsuitable environment practices by miners in those areas makes the existence of the anopheles much easier.

In these areas, Guyanese (especially males) are engaged in mining and logging to make a daily earning, which amply contributes to the development of the country, since both mining and logging are high investments and they generate important foreign exchange income for our economy, nevertheless, malaria poses a threat to these workers.

The mosquito-borne disease has significant consequences on the infected individuals as well as their communities and the country as a whole. Given that when an individual, who has reached the employment age or the age to enter the workforce is unable to work, his/her productivity and earning capacity is challenged, on the other hand, this negatively affects our economy owing to the large amount of money that needs to be used for control measures as well as treatment for affected persons.

Malaria is a major Public Health problem in Guyana, although regions one, eight, seven and nine are known to be the endemic Malaria regions, since the disease is much more prevalent in these areas, it should be noted that it poses a problem to all persons residing in all parts of the country, mostly among Amerindians, Mixed, Afro-Guyanese and to a lesser extent Indo-Guyanese, primarily due to the movement of the population.

As recorded in 2017, there were 10,000 Amerindians, 9,000 persons of mixed race, 7,000 Afro-Guyanese and 3,000 Indo-Guyanese seriously infected and required treatment, some immediately others not so urgent.

The National Malaria Programme Strategic Plan 2015-2020, denotes that in 2009 the disease began to increase and this continued, within the period 2010-2012 cases increased from 22,935 to 31,601, which was followed by a decrease in 2013-2016 (from 31,479 to 10,979 cases). This decrease was due to the interventions made by the Vector Control Services (VCS) under the Ministry of Public Health, in identifying and treating malaria infected patients in a timely manner. Moreover, in 2017 there was an increase and there were approximately 11 977 new cases of malaria recorded.

Although, the reason for the decreased has not been determined, from the above figures, a conclusion can be drawn that Guyanese are not taking the disease seriously, except when they become extremely ill.

Reasons for this might be self-medication, where when they get symptoms they stay at home and treat themselves. Particularly those persons working in the hinterland, it is not always practical for someone to travel out of a camp or working site for couple hours or days through dangerous and tough terrain to take a malaria smear and get treatment, in these cases they acquire drugs from a local shop and use them. This might be practical nevertheless it is not right. Moreover, many others who actually go to the hospital to take the malaria smear and receive treatment, after a few days are more likely to stop complying to take the full drug dosage after a while because the symptoms go away.

There are various programmes and projects launched in Guyana to combat the disease such as the National Strategic Plan which started in 2015 and will last for approximately five years (until 2020), this programme was launched by the Ministry of Public Heath in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to create awareness, in order to stop and control the spread of the disease. The Malaria Action Project was also launched in 2018, mainly in regions seven and eight, the aim of this project was to build the capacity of loggers and miners in testing and treating themselves for the mosquito-borne disease, which aids in the prevention and control of the life-threatening disease.

According to the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Karen Boyle, who highlighted that everyone has a role to play in keeping malaria at bay, she said mining operators, should adopt environmentally-sustainable mining practices, residents, local government officials and the private sector, should all lend a helping hand in keeping our environment clean, especially those areas that are vulnerable.

The programmes and projects mentioned above that are set up to combat this life threatening disease cannot be effective if infected persons and Guyanese as a whole do not comply, to timely diagnoses and treatment (infected persons who are instructed to drink tablets for the particular type of malaria they have, should do as told for the amount of days prescribed) and raising awareness and preventative measures since these are the actions required to thwart the spread of the disease.