The shipment of H1N1 vaccines which was expected in the country yesterday did not arrive, but Minister of Health Dr Leslie Ramsammy believes the vaccines could be here “any day now” based on his communication with the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Ramsammy said definitive answers on when the vaccines will arrive are currently not forthcoming. This, he said, is unacceptable because of his persistent enquiries. Guyana is expecting to receive some 240,000 doses of the H1N1 vaccine, which initially was set to arrive in November and was later pushed back to this month.
To date some 26 cases of H1N1 have been confirmed in the country, but according to Ramsammy Guyana is still in a phase of low level transmission. He said testing is ongoing at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) given that Guyana is going through a verification process before testing can be done here.
Ramsammy said testing here will begin in 2010 since Guyana has acquired the equipment to do testing for the H1N1 virus, but he gave no specific timeframe. He said also that Belize has made a request for assistance in H1N1 testing when it is introduced in Guyana and that the sector intends to accommodate this request.
