The circle at left, indicates the location of White Water in the North West District

September 3,2017 Source

— as malaria outbreak hits areas across the Amacuro River

IT IS the national holiday of Eid ul-Adha at White Water Village and the health worker at the Region One (Barima-Waini) Indigenous village is unusually busy.

He is responding to a number of patients, who in agony, ventured across the Amacuro River from Venezuela to seek treatment for their ailment, at the village’s health post.
In March this year, small numbers of Venezuelans started crossing the Amacuro River looking for medication to treat themselves and relatives suffering from malaria, as medical supplies in the crisis- torn nation have ran out in most states.

Today, that number has ballooned to dozens seeking treatment for the aliment as many have been making the trip to the health post at White Water for relief from the ailment almost on a daily basis.
This is even as reports from the area suggest that there is an outbreak of the disease across the border in Venezuela.

Patients in severe pain, await treatment at the White Water health post last Friday

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr Shamdeo Persaud told Guyana Chronicle this weekend, that there are a number of malaria cases which have been reported and the authorities have been responding to the persons who turned up at locations in the region for treatment.
According to Dr. Persaud, the treatment supplies were running low at one point but the situation has been rectified.
“We have to ensure that everyone take all the necessary treatment,” Persaud said, noting that persons from across the border would be making attempts to rid themselves of the ailment.

As regards the scope of the health workers on the border locations to address the situation, the CMO said health teams in such areas are placed there to cater for the population within the locale.
He noted too that in each community at Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine, there are community health workers, along with malaria personnel who are trained to conduct testing for the ailment.

GOV’T RESPONDING
Dr Persaud said there are also reports of a measles outbreak in Venezuela and although he was not sure of the exact locations, including if those cases were at the border with Guyana, he assured that the health authorities are responding to ensure that Guyanese have the necessary treatment through immunisation.
On August 15 this year, Al Jazeera reported that malaria infections have been spreading in the crisis-ridden Bolivarian Republic. The report pointed out that 18 of Venezuela’s 23 states are experiencing an outbreak.

According to the report, Marianella Herrera, the Director of the Venezuelan Health Observatory warned that neighbouring countries may be at risk of infection, if proper preventative measures are not taken soon, as desperate Venezuelans will seek to cross the borders in search of “medical attention and medicines that are not available in Venezuela”.
Dr Oscar Noya, Director of the Centre of Malaria Studies and Researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine and Associate Professor at the Central University of Venezuela, told Al Jazeera that there is also a “[significant] exchange of [transmission] cases at the borders with Brazil, Colombia and Guyana”.

Meanwhile, White Water Village Toshao, Cleveland De Souza, has said that the situation in Venezuela has become worrisome, pointing out to this newspaper that the village first noticed the influx of persons seeking treatment during the first quarter of 2017.
“On some Sundays we get like over 100 smears done here and out of that 50 per cent are positive cases,” he said, while noting that the medical samples have increased as the weeks progressed.

DRAMATIC INCREASE
The villages’ deputy Toshao is also a trained a health worker and he has been working overtime, even on holidays to assist the sick. Reports are that in recent months the numbers have climbed dramatically, as close to 200 persons are treated on a weekly basis for malaria at the village.

Malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite plasmodium, and according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), human malaria is caused by four different species of plasmodium. These are P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. vivax.
The malaria parasite is transmitted by female Anopheles mosquitoes, which bite mainly between dusk and dawn. The most severe form is caused by P. falciparum and variable clinical features include fever, chills, headache, muscular aching and weakness, vomiting, cough, diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

At White Water, the health post has been treating persons for the vivax and falciparum forms of the disease. “Over in Venezuela do not have medication so they flock here,” a health worker in Mabaruma noted.
De Souza said the health post in the village has been providing tablets to patients and the drugs are sourced from the Mabaruma Regional Hospital. He said for those diagnosed with malaria, cortem, cloroquine and primiguine, tablets have been provided.

He said there have been a few confirmed cases of malaria from the village itself, and it includes persons who have returned from the goldfields, across the border in Venezuela.
While noting that the figures from across the border have been worrisome, Toshao De Souza said that there have been a few cases in which White Water residents have been diagnosed with malaria.

These include those persons who reside along the Kurisima Creek, a tributary of the Amacuro River, as well as persons who live on the banks of the border river.
“Three men came over from Venezuela last night but they couldn’t walk, so we had to send transportation for them at Gaja Landing to bring them to the health centre for treatment,” De Souza said.

The landing is a primary point in the village where traders from both sides of the border usually congregate.
“Today is a holiday and still the health worker had to go and help them out,” said De Souza, who was referring to the national holiday, Eid ul Adha, which was observed on Friday.

The health post was filled to capacity with women, children and adults seeking treatment, a scene which has been a regular occurrence, as medicine in Guyana’s western neighbour dwindles.