What the people say –
Georgetown, GINA, July 24, 2008
Munesh Mangal who was diagnosed with end stage renal failure is recovering well after a successful kidney transplant surgery performed by a combined local and overseas medical team. The kidney was donated by Mangal’s mother Leelkumarie who made the brave decision to save her son’s life
Persons share their views on Guyana’s first successful kidney transplant surgery which was performed on the eighteen year old East Coast Demerara youth on July 12 at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Fidel Collin
I feel that that is a very good move that the government is doing and we want to see more of those major operations going on at the hospital. The government is trying but I want to see more but overall it is a very good move.
Joan Adams
It is very nice of the mother to give her son a kidney because I would have done the same to save my child’s life. I feel proud about the doctors coming here and doing it. It was successful. I am looking forward to seeing further operations.
Waveney Chester
I feel that it is a very good thing for our country because so many persons in the past have had to go overseas. It costs a lot of money and persons do not have that kind of money. So it’s a very good thing that we can have it done right here in the country. I know a lot about renal failure and from what nurses tell me, there is a lot of cases so I think it should be an ongoing thing.
Zalim Zahaur
It’s a good idea that Guyana is trying to compete with the developed countries… doing an operation like that is very complicated and you have to wait on the end result…
Chaitram Parasram
That’s a good idea to have the first kidney transplant in this country and I am so appreciative of the GPHC with the overseas team to perform the surgery as well as the local staff and especially the CEO Mr. Michael Khan and the Health Minister… I appreciate what was done and at the same time the GPHC and the government of this country are making room for improvement in Guyana
Leslie Greaves
I think it is very good that Guyana is stepping up in the medical field and congratulations to Leslie Ramsammy and others and I am thankful that everything came out successful. Once it is successfully done it will be ongoing and I am sure of this.
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GWI to intensify revenue collection campaign in Bartica
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
In a continuing effort to increase efficiency and service in the water sector, Chief Executive Officer, Karan Singh and a team from the Guyana Water Incorporated last weekend visited Bartica, Region Seven to follow up on issues affecting the region’s water supply.
The Chief Executive Officer visited the water treatment plant and intake station and met with residents of the 4 four miles housing scheme.
Singh said he was disturbed over the management of the water system. He noted that some residents have been tampering and removing water meters. Approximately $106M is owed to GWI by customers of Bartica, he said.
GWI’s Chief Executive Officer, Karan Singh and team during their visit at the Intake Station, Bartica
Singh said GWI will intensify its revenue campaign to collect outstanding amounts owed by residents of the region and pointed out that customers who have been disconnected and have illegally reconnected to the GWI water system, will face legal action.
At 4 miles residents highlighted their water concerns which included infrequent supply of water.
Singh assured the residents that an engineer from GWI will visit the area to provide technical assistance and to improve the level of service.
Mr. Singh discussing water issues with a 4 miles, Bartica resident
He explained that the Regional Office has explored the possibility of drilling a well at 4 miles and pointed out that soil testing will be conducted to examine whether an aquifer can be set up to produce ground water to supplement the quantity being supplied from Bartica to residents of 4 miles.
“If we can harness a well, we can interlink the feedback into the Bartica system which can serve as an improvement for both Bartica and the residents of 4 miles,” Singh added.
The Chief Executive Officer highlighted that in a few months he will be meeting with regional authorities and the Neighbourhood Democratic Council to work with them on improving water efficiency in Bartica.
Singh said he will revisit Bartica soon to meet with residents.
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More focus on Agriculture in Region Ten
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
Region Ten (Upper Demerara/Upper Berbice) which has great agricultural potential will benefit from more infrastructural works as government seeks to create the base for agricultural expansion in a Region that once depended solely on mining.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud visited the Region on July 22, to update farmers on agricultural development works and to extend the ‘Grow more’ campaign during meetings with farmers and residents at West Watooka, Linden and Moblissa, Linden/Soesdyke Highway.
The ‘Grow more’ campaign launched in March is an ongoing effort aimed at involving more persons in Agriculture. This is one of the many initiatives undertaken by Government in responding to high food prices both locally and internationally.
Minister Persaud said that significant investment has been made in the Region to assist in agricultural development and to create the base for farmers to enhance cultivation. To date some $26M has been spent on cleaning and excavating of drainage channels.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud handing over Farmers’ manual and fertilizers, West Watooka, to a resident, Region Ten
Dredging of the Cara Cara Creek was affected because of a technical problem, however, the Ministry has requested help from the mining company and work is expected to commence shortly. A contract was awarded to build a specialized pontoon, to accommodate machinery to execute work in the area.
Several outfalls, sluices and channels are being cleared and later an excavator will be deployed to the area. Other investments for the Region include the construction of a seedling house at Christianburg. This will ensure the availability of seedlings all year round.
It was also noted that the Cara Cara mined out areas consisting of six acres of land will be used to cultivate pasture grasses, some citrus, cashew nut and for cultivation of some new crops. Farmers are also utilizing newer technology such as drip irrigation.
Over the years the Ministry has spent close to $35M on developing agriculture in various areas, while working with different groups. The Ministry will be providing more technical support by boosting extension services in the Region.
With support of the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP), the Ministry is working to develop farmers to become commercially viable. “If we want to develop agriculture we must look at value- added and processing,” he said.
The Grow more campaign is market driven and in this regard the New Guyana Marketing Agency (GMC) is the facilitator. New marketing opportunities are opening up in Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago and these, Minster Persaud noted, are very sensitive and as such “farmers have to gear themselves to the requirement to meet these needs”.
Under a US$21.9M Agricultural diversification programme the Ministry has brought in foreign consultants. He noted that the Ministry has very good co-operation with India and Brazil and at present a spice expert from India is in the country to develop the local spice industry. The Brazilian Government recently donated a quantity of soya beans and cashew nut seeds.
Land and land titles issues were also discussed. The Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission has been expediting the process and some farmers will receive their titles soon.
Meanwhile, meeting residents at Moblissa, Minister Robert Persaud said the Ministry will look at improving the genetic breed of cattle in the area. The community is one that is slated for major agricultural development with the support of LEAP.
Framers also benefited from the distribution of plants, seeds, chemicals, booklets, farmers’ manual and farmers’ kit.
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PNCR trying to score political points – Minister Ramsammy
- health sector should be left out of political ramblings
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy today at a press brief said recent statements by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) relating to Guyana’s health care services are shameless, not serious and ignore realities.
The PNC/R said with the disarray of the medical system, it is not surprising that there are outbreaks of diseases such as dengue, tuberculosis, and influenza.
“There is no comparison between the state of the health sector today and the state of the health sector before 1992. The dismal failure of the PNC government in the 1970s and 1980s as it relates to health is well documented and the Ministry of Health under the PPP/C Government has had to remedy the appalling failure since then,” Minister Ramsammy said.
The Health Minister alluded to the fact that there have been significant improvements in the sector in recent years including the introduction of kidney transplant and open heart surgery, offering new services such as radiotherapy, hip and joint replacement, laparoscopy, glaucoma surgery, and retina detachment repairs.
Kidney transplant, GPHC
He noted that the country’s primary health care services have also been enhanced.
“The consequence is that more and better primary health care services are available and there is greater equity in the provision of services. These are the reasons why more than 95% of our children are immunised compared to less than 70% and our children are protected against more vaccine-preventable diseases today compared to before 1992.”
Minister Ramsammy said improved health services in Guyana have led to an increase in life expectancy and work is being done to raise the population’s life expectancy rate to 70 years by 2011. In the 1970s and 1980s Guyana’s life expectancy was reduced to the low 60s and at the end of 2007 it reached 68.
In providing an example of one improvement in the health sector the Minister of Health said the surveillance system which is critical in averting outbreaks of diseases has been enhanced noting that the non-existent or broken down surveillance system that prevailed in 1990 only reported two cases of syphilis in Guyana.
Leonora Diagnostic Centre, Region 3
“Today, there is a robust surveillance system which is constantly being strengthened and which is able to track disease events and epidemiology consistently and with a high quality, providing confidence. For certain priority diseases, surveillance reports are provided on a daily or weekly basis. Thus, dengue, malaria and influenza-like illnesses are reported on a weekly basis,” said Minister Ramsammy.
He added that whenever there is evidence of increasing numbers on a weekly basis, the system reverts to daily reporting.
The Health Minister said it is because of the current surveillance system that Guyanese are able to be constantly updated on the status of various diseases in the country. It has allowed the Ministry to inform the public about its successes in the fight against malaria and dengue.
Commenting on influenza outbreaks Minister Ramsammy said the PNC/R’s reference to this issue shows their desperation to find some way to distract Guyanese from the success story of the health sector.
He said the Ministry under the present administration has developed standard protocol for flu management at all health facilities and all the necessary supplies and appropriate medicines are now in adequate stock.
Caribbean Heart Institute, GPHC
“It is also under the PPP/C Government that the Ministry of Health introduced the influenza hemophilus B vaccine for young children, preventing the spread of a common influenza virus strain which can cause severe morbidity and also death of young children and for the elderly,” said Minister Ramsammy.
The vaccine was first available since 1980 but, was introduced in Guyana in 2000.
Speaking on tuberculosis, the Minister of Health said the PNC/R’s record on this issue should be considered a crime. During their term in office they inherited a robust anti-tuberculosis programme but, like the anti-malaria programme they dismantled its infrastructure.
“The untimely closure of the Best Sanatorium (Region Three), the New Amsterdam Chest Clinic and the Linden Chest Clinic (Region 10) and the virtual, wicked abandonment of over 300 tuberculosis patients by the PNC, particularly with the emergence of HIV in the early 1980s guaranteed the persistence and growing incidence of tuberculosis in Guyana,” Minister Ramsammy said.
Open-Heart Surgery, GPHC
It was highlighted that no health system is perfect however; countries work on its improvement. In Guyana work is being done to strengthen systems through the function of the Medical Council of Guyana which actively receives and investigates all complaints of neglect; new guidelines have been established by the Ministry for investigation of special categories of deaths; and the supervision of all medical practitioners at public health institutions has increased.
The Health Minister said there have also been improvements in other areas such as infrastructure and the technological capacity of the sector, which were both destroyed under the PNC government; and more training is being done resulting in more doctors, dentists, nurses, medical technologists and other health personnel.
Developments in the health sector have been a result of investment Minister Ramsammy said. In 1991 the budget for the sector was less than $1B compared to almost $12B today by the PPP/C government.
Minister Ramsammy said while there is still more to be done in the sector there should not be any doubt as to the enormous progress the health sector has made.
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Petro Caribe countries to benefit from better offers following recent summit
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
The recent Petro Caribe summit in Venezuela concluded with better and more reasonable offers to assist member states in strengthening capacities to acquire fuel during the present difficult period.
Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Guyanese Ambassador to Venezuela Odeen Ishmael and Chief Executive Officer (ag) of the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA) Mahendra Sharma represented Guyana at he Summit which was held in Maracaibo, Venezuela on July 12 and 13.
The summit which was attended by Caribbean and Latin American heads of Government and chaired by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez highlighted new considerations.
Mr. Hinds who is also the minister responsible for energy said, Petro Caribe would now cover 60 to 70 percent of countries’ cost for oil shipment and financing provided that the price of oil per barrel exceeds US$100 and US$150 respectively.
Guyana and 12 of the 15 CARICOM member states, along with Cuba and the Dominican Republic, were signatories to the Petro Caribe initiative. These countries are Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname.
These countries benefit from about 150,000 barrels of oil daily and are given up to 25 years to repay with 1 percent interest.
Mr. Hinds disclosed however that alternative means of repayment in the form of goods and services were proposed by the Venezuelan government, such as agricultural machinery. He said Santo Domingo proposed to offer tourism to facilitate Venezuelans.
The Prime Minister said even though Petro Caribe’s assistance will strengthen the country’s fuel capacity, emphasis on energy conservation was also highlighted.
He added that Venezuela is working to develop photovoltaic factories to strengthen its alternative energy consumption sources and is collaborating with Cuba to achieve this objective.
Food, a commodity which has recently been impacted by energy, was also stressed at the fifth summit and according to Mr. Hinds, Venezuela, which produces about two million tonnes of urea and contributes about 100,000 tonnes to Petro Caribe countries, was able to make reasonable offers.
Very soon a conference of regional agriculture Ministers will be held to discuss distribution of the aforementioned among Petro Caribe countries.
Mr. Hinds said Guyana from the inception grasped at the opportunity since it is a crucial mechanism for assistance in difficult times.
About 1.3 million barrels are imported under the programme and this has to date represented about 5200 barrels per day.
Since it establishment in 2005, the confidence level in Petro Caribe among its signatories has been building significantly and many of earlier negative perceptions have been disregarded.
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Scientific research by outsiders must be approved by Ministry
- Minister Ramsammy
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy said before any scientific research is conducted in the country approval must be granted by the ethics committee of the Ministry of Health.
The Minister was at the time commenting on a new study reported in the journal PLoS ONE which said the malaria drug chloroquine may be the cause for Escherichia coli (e-coli) bacteria resistance in remote rainforest communities in Guyana.
The Health Minister said he was unable to pronounce on the findings of the study because an investigation by the Ministry has to be conducted.
Minister Ramsammy said however, “We have no evidence that there has been an increasing incidence of and greater difficulty in treating e-coli infection either in the malaria regions of Guyana or anywhere else in the country.”
He alluded to the fact that the Ministry of Health was never approached for permission to conduct this study. He noted also that the journal is not an approved one, where investigations are evaluated and assessed before conclusions are accepted.
“That doesn’t mean that the findings may not be interesting. However, unless the Ministry is provided with the information much cannot be said on the issue,” Minister Ramsammy said.
He explained that if there is any truth to the findings of the research it is not a reflection about Guyana’s system since drug use worldwide can result in changes in the genetics of organisms.
The malaria drug chloroquine discussed in the article is used in Guyana and throughout Latin America. However, in Guyana it is only used to treat vivax malaria.
Minister Ramsammy said in some countries there is not easy access to other malaria drugs and chloroquine is used to treat both vivax and falciparum malaria.
The report stated that researchers found high levels of ciprofloxacin resistance in e-coli in Amerindians from the Guyanese rainforest. These individuals are reported as never having received treatment with ciprofloxacin or related fluoroquinolone antibiotics however, they had received treatment with chloroquine for malaria, which is a close chemical cousin of the fluoroquinolones.
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Santa Mission to receive assistance from Agri Ministry
- to enhance production
Georgetown, GINA, July 23, 2008
The ‘Grow more’ campaign initiated by the Ministry of Agriculture to increase food production and create linkages to external markets was extended today to residents and farmers of Santa Mission, Region Three, a day after the ministry’s officials were in Region Ten for the same purpose.
The Amerindian Village is noted for its vast potential in agriculture, tourism, and forestry.
Minister of Agriculture Robert Persaud pointed out the community’s agricultural potential while stressing that many countries do not possess the rich, vast resources like Guyana to develop their agriculture sector.
He told the farmers that the objective of the campaign is not only to respond to what is being experienced globally, but also to mobilize the country’s agriculture sector and to make use of the opportunities which exist.
Minister of Agriculture, Robert Persaud during discussion with Santa Mission, Region Three residents
“We are sitting, on an agriculture ‘gold mine’ and it is up to us both government, private sector, farmers and community leaders to work together so that we can fully realize that potential and exploit this agriculture ‘gold mine’ that we have in Guyana,” the Minister said.
Farmers raised issues such as pest and plant diseases which affect their crops, export markets for their produce and the re-introduction of agricultural practices in schools.
Minister Persaud noted their concerns and explained that the programme will provide an equal opportunity for agriculture development in the community.
“Government is committed to developing a strong agriculture potential because of the possibilities which exist,” he said.
He urged that all communities should embrace the vision of the campaign, get involved, organized and registered on the farmers’ database at the new Guyana Marketing Corporation (GMC).
Due to the lack of adequate extension services in the community, measures will be put in place for agents to visit at least once per month.
Santa Mission residents
Alluding to the technological advancement in agriculture, Minister Persaud said there is need for farmers’ skills in the community to be developed; pointing out that technical staff will be appointed to train farmers.
Meanwhile, Chief Crops and Livestock Officer within the Ministry, Brian Sears enlightened the community about the Ministry’s various sub-sectors noting that the crops and livestock department provides technical services to assist farmers in their cultivation so that they can increase yields.
He said the ‘Grow more’ campaign is encouraging farmers of the area to move from subsistence farming to commercial level and promised that his department will be providing the necessary support to improve their agricultural practices.
The Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and GMC will be demonstrating to farmers how they can improve their agronomic practices and providing advice on pesticide application. These efforts are to minimize farmers’ production cost and to increase yields.
Director of NARI, Dr. Oudho Homenauth explained the drive behind the ‘Grow more’ campaign and the number of steps government has taken to cushion the effects of spiraling food prices.
Also present was Chairman of Private Sector Commission, Gerry Gouveia and Toshao of Santa Mission, Aubrey Samuels.
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