Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator

The debate over the number of samples piled up to be tested for malaria continued yesterday with the Opposition maintaining it had been informed by senior Health Ministry officials that it stood at 1,500.

At the same time, Dr. Marion Bullock-Ducasse, director of emergency and disaster management in the Ministry of Health, admitted that the build-up of blood samples not tested earlier this week numbered approximately 1,000.

On Tuesday, Opposition Leader Bruce Golding told Parliament that there were 1,500 slides not yet read. Health Minister Horace Dalley dismissed his claim as inaccurate and promised to release the correct figure, but to date has failed to so do.

Up to late last evening, a statement to be issued by the ministry, providing an update on the number of cases as well as the blood samples to be tested had not been sent out. On Wednesday, 67 cases of malaria were reported.

Dr. Ken Baugh, Opposition Spokesman on Health, told The Gleaner/Power 106 News that the backlog of blood samples to be tested should be cleared within the next two days.

"They are sending slides to Atlanta (and) that 1,500 slides are just about the right estimate of what they have on hand," he said.

Dr. Baugh, who said he was briefed by Dr. Bullock-Ducasse on the ministry's efforts to contain the disease, noted that technicians from the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre and the Pan American Health Organisation were in the island assisting with the testing of blood samples.

"A rough estimate of the time it will take to complete examining those slides is that by Sunday, they'll be able to complete all those slides on hand," he said.

Number fluctuates

Dr. Bullock-Ducasse told The Gleaner that the number of slides to be read in any one day fluctuates as the ministry's health teams have been taking hundreds of blood samples on a daily basis.

The health official pointed out that the samples collected were tested within a one-week period. She further explained that the Ministry's health teams treated persons in high-risk areas who show symptoms of malaria, even though their samples were not yet tested.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has reportedly been using vehicles from the National Water Commission to carry out its vector control programme. However, it acquired 10 new Mitsubishi L 20 pick-ups, valued at some $22 million, from Motor Sales Limited, yesterday, as it intensifies its mosquito-control programme.

The vehicles are to be delivered next week.