Under-reporting of Malaria cases still a challenge- Dr Quacy Grant

Guyana will on Sunday, November 6 observe Malaria Day in the Americas. This day is used to increase awareness of Malaria and to spread key messages about the day and the achievements made thus far.

The theme of this year’s celebrations is “End Malaria for Good” even as the local programme aims to eliminate Malaria in the endemic regions by the year 2030.

However for those coastal regions there is a much shorter timeline.

News Room spoke with Coordinator of the Malaria Programme in the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Quacy Grant who explained Guyana’s plan of action. According to Dr Grant, for the endemic regions, where there is extensive mining activity there is the pilot programme now being executed in Mahdia, Region eight, that involves training miners to test for malaria.

So far, approximately 20 miners have been trained and the pilot is now in its monitoring stage and once it is deemed successful it would be extended to other parts of the Region and at a later stage other hinterland communities.

But all in all, Dr Grant says although the number of cases appears to be decreasing, under-reporting continues to be a challenge.

Just last year he notes that a PAHO/WHO assessment found that about 48 percent of the malaria cases went unreported.

To remedy this, the programme is looking at de-centralising data collection, entry and analysis in the endemic regions which is already being done in the pilot at Mahdia.