Guyana making inroads in fight against prostate, HPV-related cervical cancers

Last Updated on Saturday, 22 March 2025, 22:12 by Denis Chabrol

Guyana is recording progress in detecting the risk of prostate cancer and eliminating the likelihood of Human-Papilloma Virus (HPV)-related cervical cancer, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony announced Saturday.

Addressing the official sod-turning for the construction of the GY$831.8 million Campbellville Polyclinic on Stone Avenue and First Street, he said last year 13,000 men were screened for prostate cancer through the Community Health Worker programme. Of that number, he said about 3,000 of them had elevated Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) and biopsies revealed that about 200 of them already had signs of prostate cancer. “But, because were able to catch it early, all of those persons are now in treatment,” he said. 

He also said Guyana has been able to increase HPV vaccine coverage from 17 percent to 54 percent, with the aim of reaching 90 percent for persons between 9 and 15 years. “We are on our way to getting there but we need your collaboration, your cooperation so that we can get our population to understand how important these things are,” he said.

Dr Anthony said government would be screening persons to ascertain if they are pre-diabetic so that steps could be taken to delay the onset of diabetes, remain healthy and even if they retrogress to becoming diabetics “we will be able to manage you properly.”

In his remarks, President Irfaan Ali told attendees that government was not only improving the healthcare delivery infrastructure, but also gathering information about the state of Guyanese health. “With the polyclinic and others to follow, we’ll develop baseline health data that will help doctors make better, faster and more accurate diagnosis,” he said.

Polyclinics
The President also announced that all health centres would be upgraded to polyclinics. Head of the Kitty Health Centre, Dr Roberta Martin said that facility would be merged with the Campbellville Polyclinic, when completed in early 2026, to improve health care delivery because of the increasing demand for services. “Our building has served us well but over time it has become clear that it can no longer meet the demands in providing the level of care our patients deserve,” she said.

Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Robbie Rambarran said the Campbellville Health Centre was seeing an average of 2,334 patients and the Kitty Health Centre was seeing 2,752 patients monthly.

He said the Campbellville polyclinic would provide X-Ray, ultrasound, Electro-Cardiogram (a heart test), physiotherapy, spirometry, dental checkups, eye examinations, treatment of non-communicable diseases, child health services, asthma bays and enhanced HIV treatment and care.  “We are ensuring that health care services remain accessible,” he said.

Mr Rambarran said the Campbellville Polyclinic would also take samples and send them off for laboratory testing after which the results would be returned electronically.

The two-storey building would also house the Campbellville Post Office and, according to Mr Rambarran, clinics would be scheduled to allow Old Age Pensioners to be properly accommodated beyond the 39 seats set aside for the postal service.

The clinic would also be a teaching facility.

One standard
The Health Minister said plans were unfolding to develop “one standard” for diagnosis and treatment at the 25 health centres and health posts and 14 hospitals that would be developed countrywide. “We want to make sure that these services are delivered., no just at one health centre or two health centres but uniformly across the country and we have one standard across the country,” he said.

The Health Ministry and a United Kingdom company, RIOMED, earlier this month inked an agreement to develop an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system. That system is expected to be linked to a mobile app to allow patients to book appointments, access their health records and receive their prescriptions.