With an increase in recorded malaria cases in Regions 1, 7, 8, and 9, the Ministry of Health plans to embark on a new approach to help reduce those cases, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has announced.

Last year, one of the Health Ministry’s strategies was to give special bed nets to residents, particularly in gold mining communities where Malaria is most prevalent.

The Health Minister is still urging the use of those nets as government seeks partnerships to help with Malaria.

“We have given out more than 60,000 of these nets across these regions… we have two forms of the nets, for the beds and because we realize some people in the interior sleep in hammocks, we also have hammock nets,” the Minister said.

He said another challenge his Ministry is facing with malaria patients, is getting them to complete their treatment.

Dr. Anthony explained that a number of malaria patients would take the medication for a few days, but once they feel better, they would stop the treatment.

“That can lead to a different problem because the parasite can develop resistance to the medication that we are using and we want to avoid that so it is good for people to complete their treatment,” the Minister encourages.

It was explained that the government has been working on a project with USAID to ensure compliance with the medication.

The Ministry has also introduced rapid testing kits for faster diagnosis.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health will be moving into the affected regions to train persons to self-diagnose malaria.

According to the World Health Organization, Guyana represents about 3% of Malaria cases in the Americas with about 20,000 cases being recorded cases annually, primarily in the interior regions.

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