US gives health ministry $91m shot in the arm
Published:Friday | March 3, 2023 | 1:17 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
Jamaica now has its first multimillion-dollar plasma apheresis machine, which will improve blood donation and transfusion services in the country.
The machine will offer a new science-based solution that receives blood from a blood donor and separates it into different components – red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma and platelets – which will increase the capacity to offer lifesaving blood products to Jamaicans.
The machine was among numerous pieces of equipment, valued at approximately $91 million, donated by the United States (US) Centres for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) to the National Public Health Laboratory in Kingston on Wednesday.
Jamaica has also received its second genomic sequencing machine, provided through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The CDC also made an effort to replace depleting and depreciating testing equipment with the other donations.
Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, minister of state in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, expressed gratitude for the donations on behalf of the Government and people of Jamaica.
Cuthbert-Flynn said that the equipment will not only serve for an improvement in blood transfusion, but also increase testing capacity for COVID-19 and enhance the response and mechanisms for other health threats.
“COVID-19 still remains a public health emergency and an international concern ... . The ongoing risk posed by COVID-19 continues to be observed with still a high number of deaths. While we have improved upon our local efforts to manage the impact of COVID-19, the threat of severe disease and death remains,” she said.
Up until February 27, Jamaica has seen some 154,287 infections and more than 3,500 deaths since the first case of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected in the island in March 2020.
US Ambassador Nick Perry, who accompanied Dr Emily Kainne Dokubo, Caribbean regional office director at the CDC, was excited to hand over the equipment to his country of birth.
He said that the US would continue to work closely with Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness to strengthen the country’s capacity to respond to health threats.
Perry mentioned that the equipment was procured by CDC funding through a cooperative agreement with the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization.