Health Ministry establishes Unit to handle monkeypox cases

The Health Ministry has announced that a special unit has been established at the Guyana’s Infectious Disease Hospital, liliendaal, to accommodate anyone who might be subdued to the global monkeypox virus locally.

It was noted that the medical post will be outfitted with the necessary reagents and equipment, and full medical staff complement. This approach, the ministry said is another massive step undertaken by the Government, as it continues to be on high alert for any possible cases in Guyana.

It was revealed that Government has already trained a number of regional health officials at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory, to be better able to detect the infectious disease.

“…if they do have a case, they would have the right techniques of how to take the sample, how to store the sample, and transport the sample to the laboratory so that we can do the confirmatory testing at the National Public Health Reference Lab,” Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, said during Thursday’s COVID-19 Update.

The minister said that Guyana must be prepared to guard against the health emergency.   “This is something that we have to pay a lot of attention to, and try to make sure it is contained,” the health minister noted.

Additionally, it was stated that the government has established a steering committee as part of efforts to prepare for the monkeypox virus reaching here.

As such, the health ministry is looking to do a continuing medical education course for medical practitioners. This course, the ministry said will help participants with accessing updates on the latest statistics, information, and clinical presentation of the disease.

Dr. Anthony pointed out that the course will help the doctors to know the correct procedure to make reports to the ministry, and how to properly detect any such case.

“That how you deal with those types of emergencies you have to prepare. So, we have all the medical people trained, know what to look for and once we detect a case they’ll follow the protocol,” Dr Anthony added.

Additionally, the minister revealed that Guyana is working with the international community using a coordinated approach to tackle the infectious monkey pox disease in light of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent announcement that it is now considered a global ‘public health emergency’.

It was noted that the monkeypox is a disease that is transmitted from animals to humans. Globally, there are some 19,306 cases recorded. As such, the typical symptoms included a characteristic rash, fever, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, muscle aches, headache and sore throat.

The health minister stressed that it is relatively easy to clinically diagnose someone who presents with a rash.  It was disclosed that in the last seven days, there has been 2,096 new cases in the Americas, which reflects a 63.2 per cent increase from the prior week.

Further, Brazil has reported some 690 cases of monkeypox, with 312 new cases over the last seven days. Venezuela also recorded one case. In the Caribbean, there are two cases in Jamaica, one in Barbados, one in Barbuda, one in the Bahamas, and another one in Martinique.

Additionally, among the discovery, there are a lot of young men who are affected, primarily those who have sex with men.