Health Ministry aims to eliminate malaria and TB

Health Ministry aims to eliminate malaria and TB
Guyana Chronicle, 16 January 2008
A two-day workshop sponsored by Global Fund on the monitoring and
evaluation of malaria and tuberculosis (TB), was yesterday declared
open by Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.

During the opening session, the minister stressed that his Ministry has
ambitious goals for programmes such as these and signalled that efforts
will be redoubled to further reduce the spread of the diseases.

Dr. Ramsammy pointed out that Guyana exceeded the target for malaria
reduction in 2007 and he has no doubt that Guyana will again achieve
the target for this year. He stated that this is not something to
celebrate, but rather to work further to not have any report on malaria
and tuberculosis in Guyana.

The minister said that the real objective is that Guyana should not
have any malaria and TB cases, because tools for preventing both
diseases are available in Guyana. He said 2008 will see a dramatic
reduction of TB and malaria.

“Our goal should be that we do not have to record TB and Malaria in our
country and everyone should get involved and stop TB and malaria,” Dr.
Ramsammy emphasised.

According to the minister, the highest number of malaria cases were
recorded in Region 7(Cuyuni/Mazaruni) and added that there must be a
more aggressive approach to reduce the cases in 2008. He further stated
that it is unacceptable that the region where there is most resources
has the most malaria cases.

“If we tackle this then we would have no problem in reducing malaria
cases in Guyana. The monitoring and evaluation programme is a very
significant programme for Guyana. We have to ensure that both malaria
and TB cases have relevant information and know that the people are
given treatment. The health system must ensure that the end result of
being cured is achieved. We must therefore create this confidence in
people,” Dr. Ramsammy exhorted.

Also present at the opening ceremony of the workshop was the Director
of the Health Sector Development Unit (HSDU), Mr. Keith Burrowes, who
noted that the workshop is to further strengthen the capacity of work
that is currently being done. He said the venture aims at producing
quality data for decision making. He also urged the participants to
further enhance their skills.

The facilitators of the workshop are Mr. Ron Mataya from the University
of Loma Linda, USA and Mr. Yamil Silva from PAHO/WHO. (Nathalene
DeFreitas)