The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is being lauded by Guyana health officials as being critical to Caribbean regionalism as far as public health is concerned. This sentiment was echoed by Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran who declared that “we are happy that our CARPHA in Trinidad is doing what it is intended to do. We speak about regionalism and this is where regionalism is in action.”
CARPHA’s beginnings go back to 2011 when the organization was established in 2011 by an Inter-Governmental Agreement to create one public health agency responsible for various tasks within the Caribbean and recognized by CARICOM member states.
The Agency, which is led by Dr. James Hospedales, Executive Director combines the work, mission and vision and objectives of five institutions namely the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI), the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), the Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institution (CFNI), the Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC) and the Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory (CRDTL).
It is particularly in light of Guyana’s outbreak of Chikungunya that Dr. Ramsaran speaks when he spoke about the regional approach to dealing with the mosquito-borne illness in Guyana. However, the Minister said that Guyana shall still proceed to open its own laboratory to face emerging or menacing public health challenges that may face the South American Caribbean nation.
Minister Ramsaran said that the laboratory was located at the junction of New Market and Thomas Streets in Georgetown and is already equipped with laboratory equipment but must train personnel. Guyana’s National Reference Laboratory officially opened its doors in 2008.
And according to Minister Ramsaran although the laboratory, situated at the junction of New Market and Thomas Streets, Georgetown, has in place equipment to do a variety of laboratory tests, including testing for the Chikungunya virus, the Ministry is yet to train personnel to utilise the equipment.
Guyana and the other Caribbean territories that have been hit by the Chikungunya since its detection in these parts towards the end of last year have been relying on CARPHA to validate suspected cases. According press reports, the Minister confirmed that close to 200 samples were sent from Guyana to CARPHA for testing with only 19 have thus far returned as confirmed cases of Chikungunya. The confirmed cases of the mosquito borne virus were found mainly in sections of East Berbice, according to the Health Minister.
The Health Minister said that the new lab will outfit its staff with rapid test kits for many diagnoses of many illnesses but that chikungunya will still require the laboratory based methods.
The Minister continued that this is why moves were afoot to speed up training of personnel who staff the National Reference Laboratory.
Minister Ramsaran disclosed that the Health Ministry is ready to work very closely with CARPHA as well as to work with the Pan American Health Organisation/Centres for Disease Control (PAHO/CDC) in a collaborative effort regarding training, respectively.
“We had deliberately, knowing that training was coming up, asked the authorities (PAHO and CDC) to extend that person’s stay to possibly get training to test for Chikungunya…so we are awaiting a reply; that will be our best option,” the Minister said.
