Guyana gets new technology for malaria sequencing

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony has declared that Guyana is continuing the fight against
malaria with the procurement of new technology that will facilitate the sequencing, the genomes
of parasites found in the blood of infected patients.

He disclosed that the new advanced technology will also help researchers to determine the
different genes and hot spot areas of the parasite here in the country. Dr. Anthony made the
announcement on Monday, at the launch of a five-day workshop, that focuses on medical
professionals’ training. “This project is intended to use new and innovative technologies to
understand better the malaria parasite and the malaria vector responsible for the transmission of
the disease,” he said.
Dr. Anthony noted that the project will help Guyana to completely eliminate malaria parasites
and vectors. This, he said, will be done through the development of a molecular surveillance
system, which will be used to monitor trends of the disease and determine sources of the
parasites. The health minister pointed out that researchers will also be able to monitor the
distribution of malaria and the spread of the disease across the country as well as monitor the
resistance of antimalarial drugs, to possibly develop new technologies and medicines to treat
those infected.
“Drug resistance is a complex and challenging public health problem. All known drugs for
malaria, there have been established some level of clinical resistance,” Dr. Anthony said.
Minister Anthony revealed that with the continuous resistance of these drugs, more persons have
been hospitalised, diagnosed with anemia, having low birth weight, and even deaths.
Meanwhile, Dr. Caroline Buckee, Professor of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard
said the project will help officials understand the malaria parasites and could also be used in the
fight against COVID-19. “We really believe that these two foundations can help, not only the
malaria programme, but also other vector-borne diseases and other infections including
COVID…,” Dr. Buckee said.
She added, “I think Guyana now has elimination in sights as part of regional and global
initiatives to reduce the burdens.”  It was noted that the research project is supported and
funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is a collaboration between the Health
Ministry and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.