Gov’t to commence training laboratory staff to combat Monkeypox

The Ministry of Health has organised training for laboratory staff regionally to combat the infectious monkey pox disease which is rapidly spreading around the world.

The training will commence on Thursday, July 28 at the National Public Health Reference Lab by a staff who was recently trained by PAHO/WHO in Jamaica.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony said the training is important and is being headed by an expert in the field.

“She brings to Guyana that experience of how to do these testing…what are the protocols that we should be observing to get them more acquainted with monkeypox…how to identify, how to diagnose… and when we diagnose how to take samples so that we can do the PCR testing”, he explained.

The minister noted that the training is not complicated as those selected are working in the field. The half-day training targets three to four laboratory staff from each region.

The training is being to prepare the country to address any possible instance of the virus being identified here.

Symptoms of Monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches and backache, swollen lymph nodes, exhaustion, and rashes that can look like pimples or blisters that appear on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body.

Dr. Anthony noted previously that symptoms of the disease can appear about five days after a person is infected. The virus is not only spread through contact with monkeys but rodents and infected persons.

Persons can be immunised against monkeypox with the vaccines used for small pox, which has shown promising results.

Currently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recorded an estimate of 16,000 cases in 75 countries.