The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), today commenced a two-day Disease Elimination Surveillance Workshop in Georgetown.
This initiative marks a critical step in Guyana’s continued commitment to eliminating communicable diseases and achieving public health targets in line with regional and global priorities.

This workshop builds on the outcomes of the April 2024 Joint – PAHO, Ministry of Health Disease Elimination Mission, which focused on strengthening Guyana’s health system through four key pillars: integrated service delivery, strategic surveillance, addressing environmental and social determinants, and reinforcing governance and financing.

During his opening remarks, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Narine Singh emphasised the need for a unified, integrated approach to disease elimination.
“We recognise that many programmes have been working diligently, but often in silos. This initiative helps us align efforts, share data and challenges, and move forward as one Ministry, under one elimination agenda,” Dr. Singh stated.

He added that while some disease programmes are nearing elimination, others still face significant cross cutting challenges. “By strengthening indicators, using dashboards, and improving collaboration, we can track our progress more effectively and adjust our strategies where needed.”
Since the April mission, a Disease Elimination Task Force has been actively coordinating and monitoring national activities to eliminate targeted diseases.

The current workshop aims to reinforce these efforts by:
* Clarifying disease elimination definitions based on PAHO/WHO guidelines.
* Developing standard indicators to monitor elimination progress.
* Fostering inter-programme collaboration within the Ministry.
* Supporting regular monitoring and evaluation of target programmes.
* Strengthening the use of data dashboards for visualising progress and guiding decision-making.

 

Chief Medical Officer Dr Narine Singh addressing participants

Participants from various health programmes attend the two day Disease Elimination Surveillance Workshop