As Guyana continues to make strides in the reduction of malaria cases, the Health Ministry now aims to fully eliminate the disease as a public health problem from this country by the year 2015.At a recent press conference, Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, said that the Ministry of Health had initially aimed to reduce the incidences of the disease, but due to the remarkable success achieved, the administration is now aiming higher.Last year, the ministry achieved a 50% reduction of malaria cases over 2006. At the end of June last, the sector gained a further 25 % reduction over last year.At the end of June 2007, 5,500 malaria cases were recorded, while for this year, during the same time frame, only 4000 cases have been reported and recorded.It was explained that the most serious form of malaria made up 39% of the overall number of cases recorded,Cheap NBA Jerseys China, while the less serious form made up 56%.“And that is good news, because we don’t only want to reduce, we want to ensure that those cases that occur are of the less serious form,” Dr. Ramsammy emphasised.Meanwhile, 45 % of the malaria cases for this year so far occurred in Region Seven alone, while Regions One and Eight contributed 17% each.Seven per cent of the malaria cases also occurred in Region Ten, while 6% occurred in Region Nine. A small number of cases occurred in Region Two, which accounted for 3 %, and Region Three,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, which contributed 2%.Ramsammy said that, so far for this year, no evidence of malaria transitions has been found in Regions Four, Five and Six.However, he explained that most persons who visit the malaria clinic in Georgetown are not from Region Four. The ministry has found that most of the persons come from Regions One, Seven, Eight, Nine or Ten.“We have now gone on, since the cases are so much lower, to find out where they are occurring. Not just which region, but where in these regions they are occurring,” Ramsammy said.Over the past several weeks, the ministry’s rapid response team has been able to identify three hot spots that are known for having malaria cases — Omai, Arimumine and Mabura/Frenchman.For the last week,NFL Jerseys China Cheap, the rapid response team was able to record 35 malaria cases in Omai, while 10 cases were found in Arimumine and 12 in Mabura/Frenchman.According to Dr. Ramsammy, the team has moved into the areas, and is working with the local health officers there to prevent any outbreak of the disease.Mahdia, Aranka River, Konawaruk, Issano, Siparuni River,Jerseys NFL Cheap, Cuyuni River and the Waini River, along with the other three hot spots, contributed 100 malaria cases out of 140 for the past week alone.“Right now,Wholesale Jerseys Online, our major concern is Omai, because you could see, if you only had 140 cases in a couple of hundred communities, which means that you average just about one case in any of these communities in each of the region. And you look at Omai, which has 35 cases,” Ramsammy noted.He explained that the Omai Company no longer functions at the site, and thus people have moved into the area. These persons, he said, are speculators who are looking for small amounts of gold.Ramsammy noted that,China NFL Jerseys, while some persons have concessions to be on the land, others are there illegally.“There is a rush in the area, and that is causing the problem right now,” he noted.Earlier in the year, the ministry had set a target to record less than 10,000 malaria cases. In this regard, the Health Minister said, the ministry is on the right track to achieving this goal.Ramsammy commended the malaria workers for being on the alert and for effectively dealing with the situation.He also urged the respective communities to make proper use of the bed nets that were recently distributed by the ministry so that they can be protected from contracting the disease.