APNU MP Richard Allen has challenged the response to the gastroenteritis outbreak in Region One by the regional administration and the Health Ministry, saying they failed to take urgent action until after the second of three child deaths linked to the illness.
As the reported cases begin to decline, Allen also says residents remain clueless as to the plans to ensure they get safe water. “Is it that we are going to be given water treatment tablets every month or are we going to get clean, potable water?” Allen, who is a resident of Port Kaituma, yesterday questioned, while noting that concerns have been repeatedly raised about the quality of the water in the region but no action has ever been taken.
Allen told Stabroek News that prior to this newspaper’s first report (March 7) on the outbreak, nothing was being done by the region or the ministry.
He said that a plane load of medication and a health team only arrived after the death of the second child. That child, identified as seven-month-old Steve Adams, of Canal Bank, died on March 4. The first child, two-month-old Zashada Bumbury, of Quarry Hill, Oronoque died on February 15, while the third casualty was a one-year-old from Canal Bank. According to the Health Ministry, the outbreak peaked in the third week in February.
Allen said he made contact with officials at the Hinterland Health Services, located in Georgetown, after the first death. He explained that he went this route because he was repeatedly told to do so, instead of contacting senior officials, such as the Health Minister or the Minister of Local Govern-ment.
Allen said that he subsequently made contact with the office of the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Local Government and was told by the secretary that contact was made with regional health officers and that the PS would make contact with him. He said that the PS did make contact with him and they met at his office.
He believed that the information was passed on to the senior people but for some reason no immediate action was taken to address the outbreak. “They had to wait until there were deaths to act,” he said, before opining that had action been taken when the first cases were reported, the number of victims would have been far less. Up to last weekend, 529 cases had been reported and three children had died from the symptoms (vomiting and diarrhoea) of the outbreak.
The MP said that what is even more distressing is that the authorities knew about the residents’ concerns about the water supply and nothing was ever done. Last December, he noted, a decaying body was found in Pump Creek and the issue of clean and safe water was raised. He said that authorities never following up those concerns. Prior to that, he added, reports were made about the quality of water.
Allen said that now that there is the outbreak, residents are not being given the assurance that plans are afoot to ensure they have a clean water supply.
He said that there are health teams going around distributing water tablets among other things but there are many homes that are still to be visited.
Efforts to contact the government MP for the region, Junior Local Government Ministry Norman Whittaker, and Regional Vice Chairman Fermin Singh yesterday were futile.
The Health Ministry has said that the outbreak is linked to the E.coli bacteria. It is believes that the outbreak began in Sebai as the water tested there had three times the level of the bacteria when compared to last year.
Residents have been accused of building their pit latrines too close to the waterways, resulting in contamination. However, they have denied this claim and have blamed miners, who they say are improperly disposing of their human waste, for the situation.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran told Stabroek News on Monday that there hasn’t been an increase in the number of cases. “No it has flattened out and starting to recede,” he said.
According to Dr. Ramsaran, the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud reported to him that it could be a virus that is responsible for the outbreak and steps were being taken to fight it. “But again, it comes from contamination of sources of our water and we need aggressively to work with other agencies.
This is not an activity that the Ministry of Health alone can do,” he said.
He noted that ministry officials are doing their best and added that they are continuously telling residents where to build their pit latrines. The minister noted that in the case of logging camps, no regulations are observed and workers dispose of waste at their own convenience.
Dr. Ramsaran said that when there is a crisis like this outbreak and people feel the pain of it “they listen to you… a few months or half a year after we are back to our old ways.” He said that what is needed is enforcement, continuous education and a multi-agency approach.
According to him, the Health Ministry will be relying heavily on education, with the main targets being schools. At the same time, he said there needs to be regulation in the logging camps and these need to be enforced. “They do exist. It is just a matter of policing it,” he added.
He also voiced concerns that vessels docking in the North West or working in the water ways may not have the “satisfactory sanitary habits” and he disclosed that his ministry will be working along with the Ministry of Transport to deal with an approach to this situation. “My team has done great. They went in there for two days initially, discovered certain things and immediately came back and report,” he stressed, while adding that there is enough medication and other resources to deal with the outbreak.
