Medical officials in Bara-mita, North West District have highlighted the language barrier between them and villagers as one of the challenges they are facing in their response to the gastroenteritis outbreak in the area, according to Regional Chairman Brentnol Ashley.
Ashley, who spoke to Stabroek News via telephone yesterday, explained that while he cannot say for sure how many additional cases of gastro have been reported, he is expected to be briefed on the situation today. Ashley, who had been on medical leave for the past two weeks, stated that based on the information he had received before proceeding on leave, the total number of reported cases had reached 93.
So far, an eleven-month-old child has been the only casualty of the outbreak.
Up to last Thursday, Public Health Minister Dr George Norton had been quoted by the Government Information Agency (GINA) as saying that the number of cases stood at 90 although many persons were no longer exhibiting symptoms of the condition following treatment.
GINA said a technical team comprising a doctor, a Medex and an Environ-mental Health Officer are on the ground assessing the situation and working to keep the outbreak under control. The team has visited 22 satellite villages in the region, where it has been distributing medication, hydration fluids, and water purification agents, such as bleach, to the residents.
Ashley said the regional administration is continuing to work with the Ministry of Public Health to fix the problem by collecting water samples from the satellite communities as well as conducting sessions to raise residents’ awareness about gastro.
However, he noted that the technical team has been met with a lack of cooperation from some sections of the affected population as they reportedly did not want to use the bleach in the water or the tablets because they said it tastes bad. This, Ashley said, could be attributed to a language barrier between the team and the residents, which is posing a problem in effectively dealing with the situation.
According to the official, the English language comes second to most of the residents who mostly use the Carib language. As a result, communication has proven to be somewhat difficult between the team and residents. Additionally, he said time was lost as a result of having to source translators in order for affected persons to receive the necessary treatment.
Nevertheless, the Chair-man stated that measures have been put in place to rectify the issue and persons have begun responding.
Additionally, Ashley stated that to the best of his knowledge, most, if not all of the affected persons have been sent home since the majority of patients have exhibited only one of the two obvious symptoms, vomiting and diarrhoea.
At the beginning of January, the Ministry of Public health had issued a statement saying that it was monitoring the indigenous community after several cases of vomiting and diarrhoea were detected in the area. The gastroenteritis-like symptoms had landed an estimated 60 persons at the Baramita Health centre earlier this month.
According to GINA, a total of 529 residents from Port Kaituma and surrounding communities were infected with the virus in 2013 as a result of an outbreak in the North West District. There were three reported deaths. Prior to that, there was an outbreak in 2009 and six residents died.
