Dr. Reyaud Rahman,Wholesale Cheap Jerseys, Vector Control Services DirectorAlthough Guyana still does not have the capacity to test for the Chikungunya Virus,Sale NFL Jerseys, Director of Regional Health Services,Cheap Jerseys, Dr. Reyaud Rahman,Cheap Jerseys Online, is adamant that the local capacity to deal with the virus has been unprecedented.He insisted during an interview with this publication that “we dealt with it and I must say we fared a lot better than other Caribbean countries. Some countries claimed that they could not control it and we even gave them assistance wherever we could. So I think we managed it better than a lot of places.”Although he did not elaborate on the extent of the assistance offered, Dr. Rahman did list Suriname,Cheap Authentic NFL Jerseys, Jamaica and Barbados.He recalled that St Lucia was among a few countries within the Caribbean that evidently struggle to combat the virus while Guyana was able to put strategic measures in place to control its spread , as far as possible.And perhaps the fact that Guyana was on high alert even before the arrival of the virus was a main ingredient. According to Dr Rahman ahead of being detected in Guyana there were several reports of the virus within the Caribbean, a revelation that had caused the local health sector to engage a number of proactive measures including regular fogging activities, mainly within the capital city.Guyana was not caught off guard when the virus arrived. This was in spite of the fact that Guyana was seeing the virus for the first time and therefore had to redirect resources to tackle its impact.“We knew exactly what we had to do…because we are trained to deal with vector borne diseases. We know how we had to spray; we weren’t really short changed in anyway. This is our job, it is managed pretty much the same way how we manage dengue fever so we weren’t in any way caught off guard with it.”A major challenge for Guyana however, was the fact that there were, and still are, some conditions across the country, that are conducive to the breeding of the mosquito that transmits the Chikungunya virus.The virus is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which also transmits Dengue Fever. The ideal breeding ground for this mosquito is stagnant water. Breeding places include tyres, gutters, barrels and other containers with water that can be found around the yard.“That was one downside for us; situations like that could make it extremely difficult to manage this virus but we still persevered, we still continued and are continuing to do what we have to do…we are not using that as an excuse but those things (stagnant water around the place) do not help the situation for us.“But that is what we have to deal with and we have had to carry out with our work despite shortcomings,” asserted Dr. Rahman.But as part of the Ministry of Health’s efforts to combat the disease, efforts were made to commence an intense campaign to raise awareness,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys China, among members of the public, on ways to reduce the prevalence of the vector borne virus.Once infected an individual could manifest symptoms ranging from headache,Wholesale Jerseys, fever, nausea/vomiting, rash, muscle and joint pains.Although the Ministry has not officially disclosed the number of confirmed cases of Virus seen last year, there is no denying that there were hundreds of clinical cases recorded across the country.When asked of the actual numbers Dr. Rahman would only admit that the cases were in excess of 100. He went on to explain that the Ministry was only able to confirm cases after samples were sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad to be tested.The Director however speculated, “Our suspected cases I can imagine it is a couple of hundreds or in the thousands…I don’t have those figures but it may be somewhere around there.”There were assurances of support from the Pan American Health Organisation for the training of at least two persons from the National Reference Laboratory to test for the virus. However, Dr. Rahman disclosed, “We do not have this capacity as yet as far as I know but we are very close to that.”