The Government has so far spent over one hundred million dollars ($100M) to treat patients with Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) under which Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS) falls.
Minister of Health, Dr. Christopher Tufton explains that it costs the Government $1.5 million to treat with each case of Acute Flaccid Paralysis and so far there have been eighty one (81) notifications ten of which have been considered suspected cases of GBS. Two have been confirmed as zika positive.
He reiterated that the medication to treat AFP including GBS is not at a cost to patients at public facilities.
“We recognize that our public sector patients would not be able to afford the cost for treating GBS and so we have been purchasing the medication and supplies to ensure that we are in a position to provide what is needed as best as possible. At the onset of the zika outbreak we expected to see increased GBS cases especially given the experience from other countries so we have been preparing for that,” Dr. Tufton explained
In the meantime, Dr. Tufton thanks attorney-at-law Delano Franklyn for sharing his story about his experience with Guillain Barre Syndrome to help with efforts to sensitise Jamaicans about this and other possible complications of the zika virus.
Dr. Tufton says this will help ongoing efforts to educate Jamaicans about the zika virus and its complications and place into focus the increased need for individual responsibility to tackle the source of the problem by destroying mosquito breeding sites around their environment especially homes.