| – Minister urges heightened awarenessAs the world observes World Tuberculosis Day today, the disease remains one of the most serious public health challenges Guyana faces. And there has been slow progress in the fight against the disease. This observation was made by Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, even as he emphasised the need to reduce exposure. According to the minister, for each person infected with TB,NFL Jerseys From China, about 10 to 15 persons are further exposed.In 2009, he revealed that 625 persons tested positive and were placed on TB treatment. This, he said, means that “if we detected 625 cases in 2009, at least 6,Jerseys Wholesale,000 to 12,000 persons were exposed to the TB bacteria.”Ramsammy further noted that about 60 persons die each year from TB. However most of those persons are also HIV positive. In fact it has been deduced that about 23 percent of the recorded TB patients are also persons living with HIV.“Before 2007,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys, about 33 percent of TB patients were among people who were living with HIV. Our goal is to ensure that the incidence rate drops to below 50 per 100,000 by 2015 and that the rate of TB patients living with HIV drops to below 12 percent. We also want to ensure we eliminate deaths due to TB,” the Minister disclosed.At the moment, the incidence rate in Guyana is 83 cases per 100,000,Cheap Jerseys, below the global average of 139 cases per 100,000. Like the global situation, Guyana has experienced a gradual decrease of the incidence rate for TB, according to Minister Ramsammy,Cheap NFL Jerseys, who noted that prior to 2004, the rate had reached almost 100 per 100,000 in Guyana.But though TB has had a massive impact globally, Minister Ramsammy has assured that not everyone exposed will develop the disease.“Indeed, although there were about 9.4 million persons who developed TB in 2009 globally, more than two billion persons are infected with the TB bacteria. Similarly in Guyana there are thousands who are infected with the TB bacteria, but not all of them have or will have TB.”And since this fact is not readily known, Minister Ramsammy is of the belief that “we are not doing a great job in educating and making people more aware of TB.” He disclosed that he has instructed his technical officers to increase the robustness of the education and awareness programme this year.“My goal is that every citizen must be fully aware of TB and must be empowered to protect themselves. The schools must teach about TB in all the classes as civic lessons. The churches, mandirs and mosques must preach about TB as part of people’s religious responsibilities. We need a national solidarity to stop TB. We must use the ‘Me to you: Reach One Save One’ campaign to make sure that every child, every adult, every girl, every boy, every woman, and every man know about TB.”TB has for many years been recognised as a major public health challenge, however in the 1970s, Guyana, like a few other countries, had believed that the disease had been eradicated. However,NFL Jerseys From China, by the beginning of the 1980s, with the emergence of HIV, TB returned with a vengeance, according to Minister Ramsammy.About 9.5 million new cases now emerge every year and about 1.8 million persons die each year from TB around the world. The incidence rate for TB globally is 139 cases per 100,000. This is a slight drop from 2004 when it was 143 cases per 100,Wholesale NFL Jerseys 2018,000. |
