GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – Health authorities in Guyana say they are monitoring reports of an outbreak of gastroenteritis in the northwest district that has so far resulted in the death of one person.

The report comes less than 24 hours after Barbados declared an alert following an increase of the stomach infection on the island.

  “As we learnt a few days ago reports started to emerge of groups of people falling ill and certain actions undertaken…even the most well-oiled and efficiently functioning response, as has been mounted by the Ministry of Health, will need time to come to final conclusions but notwithstanding that certain concrete public health interventions have already been taken even before the media became aware of the situation,” said Guyana Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran.

He said that Chief Medical Officer Dr Shamdeo Persaud has been instructed to look into the matter and that certain public health interventions have already been implemented in keeping with standard operational procedures.

Dr Persaud said that the reported cases are being observed through the surveillance information, which is collected on a weekly basis and the reports indicate there have been increases from since the second week of January where at least one child died due to severe dehydration.

He said a post mortem was done and some samples taken both from the patient and water supply including the river and wells in the area.

Dr Persaud said he samples indicate that the water was contaminated with “E.coli, which is an organism that is usually expelled in faeces.

“As a matter of fact the results coming out of Food and Drugs indicate …that the waters are severely contaminated,” he added.

A Government statement said that a second team visited the area last weekend and “once the source of the contamination has been identified efforts will focus on addressing that with support from the Regional Administration”.