There would be three permanent medical centres and four temporary ones staffed with some 50 accredited health workers at the Providence Stadium during the World Cup Cricket (CWC) to deal with any medical emergency.
Three highly equipped ambulances with life support equipment would also be on site. This is part of Guyana’s national health preparedness plan for the country’s hosting of the Super Eight CWC series just weeks away. The preparation of the country for the games saw some 2,000 food handlers, employed at some 75 food establishments, being trained by the Food & Drugs Department. The food handlers will be issued with badges and should they be observed not wearing them during the games, disciplinary action would be taken, Director of the Food & Drugs Department, Marilyn Collins said Friday at a press conference.
The press conference, which was held at the NCN studio, also saw Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of the Health Ministry Dr Rudolph Cummings, Director of the Disease Control Department of the ministry Dr Shamdeo Persaud, and PAHO/WHO Resident Representative Dr Kathleen Israel speaking about other arrangements in the health sector.
Re-training
Collins said that there has been a complete re-training of the food handlers and inspection of places where foods would be prepared. She said in the past the fitness of someone to prepare food was based on a medical examination but there has been a shift since it was recognised that it was the practices of food handlers that should be taken into consideration. Training has focused on areas such as the condition under which foods should be prepared, the storage of food and how to handle foods, among other things. There has been a complete reorientation of food handlers.
According to Dr Cummings, a lot of the procedures that Guyana and other countries in the region are following were derived from a working group which met consistently for almost a year and a half under the auspices of CWC. The group has had at least one meeting out of which came specific procedures to deal with any kinds of eventualities. There have also been national efforts in the area of public health and preparedness of the health sector. He said there is a regional emergency health response mechanism to parallel the regional security mechanism and this would be available to countries in the region.
The CMO said that in addition to the health centres at the stadium, there would be eight volunteers sitting among the patrons in the four stands to address immediate needs and give advice. There would also be a team that would be ready to assist in moving players from the field to their medical facility should they be injured.
Airport clinical
centre
An anti-doping centre has also been provided as requir-ed and this is a secure area at the stadium. There will also be health facilities at the two practice grounds, Everest and Bourda.
Additionally, the health sector will ensure as far as possible that public events have some medical presence so people may receive health care or be evacuated if necessary.
Health care will also be supplied at Le Meridien Pegasus, where the majority of teams would be staying and at the Buddy’s International Hotel where a large number of CWC officials, sponsors and others would be accommodated. Dr Cummings said that there is also a functional clinical centre at the airport in the arrival hall and this centre would continue to operate after the games are over.
Additionally, Dr Cummings said, nurses and doctors living in the US, who are Guyanese, will be offering their assistance during the games and they would be stationed at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Not much shade
He cautioned that persons should be careful when they are at the games to avoid becoming dehydrated. He pointed out that there is not much shade in the stands at the stadium and persons should remember to ensure that they take enough fluid and are dressed properly; if possible, wearing hats or caps to shade them from the sun.
In the area of disease control, Dr Persaud said that there would be a surveillance mechanism in place to keep track of what the disease patterns are during the games and after. He said that for some years they have been monitoring diseases based on reports from health facilities but during the run-up to World Cup they have worked with the Caribbean Epidemio-logy Centre (CAREC), located in Trinidad and they have come up with a system. The system allows for immediate reporting so as soon as someone develops any combination of symptoms they can be immediately reported and evaluated on a daily basis. He said for cricket they would like reports to be sent in on a daily basis and to do this they have established several key sentinel sites from where they would be collecting these reports. The sites are located in the stadium and other areas.
Dr Persaud suggested the use of DEC salt during the games and even after as a protection against filariasis. The use of treated bed nets at the bed and breakfast locations is advocated and these are being made available. He said, however, he would not recommend the use of any chemicals as a form of control.
Regional level
And speaking on the regional level, Dr Israel said PAHO has been collaborating with Caricom and the governments of the host countries in mounting an effective preparedness campaign as well as a response mechanism for the games. She said as far back as two years ago discussions commenced on the need for a budget to implement regional activities and it was approved last November and would be headed by Caricom. Dr Israel said that PAHO recruited a public health professional to coordinate the public health component associated with CWC throughout the region. Speaking about the regional response team, Dr Israel said that it is referred to as “the roving team” and is made up clinical experts and environmental professionals to move from country to country as the games are played in order to support the country’s local health team. She said that the team for Guyana is expected to be here just before the games and would remain for a short while after.
According to Dr Israel preparedness is one of the critical areas in the public health preparedness and response plan and to this end CAREC has been tasked with the responsibility of strengthening the regional public health surveillance system. CAREC has established a daily reporting mechanism and has set up a blog to pick up the reports and the blog can be accessed through www.carec.com. The blog is not only being monitored by CAREC but by a regional emergency response team which is located at the PAHO office in Barbados and would be on call 24 hours..
“There will be two regional emergency evacuation mechanisms to uplift the people if necessary from the countries to take them outside
