Government is determined to treat dengue or a dengue outbreak in the same way it is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, Minister of Health and Wellness Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic has declared.
He told journalists at Ilaro Court on Monday that any outbreak will be treated with “the same level of seriousness, and the same approach with the health emergency operation centre being responsible for launching the effort”.
He explained: “We have contracted about 40 additional persons, for example, to assist the Environmental Unit to be able to go out there and they have been out there on the ground trying to locate mosquito breeding sites.”
Lt. Col. Bostic explained that not only had the ministry deployed extra manpower but a substantial amount of money had been spent on equipment as well.
He said: “We have spent a considerable amount of money on purchasing both handheld foggers as well as truck-mounted foggers. We are awaiting the arrival of the foggers, and as soon as those machines are here, then we are going to be able to deploy four fogging teams – two in the northern half of the country and two in the southern half, with a fifth team that will be able to respond to any isolated incidence.”
Declaring that the ministry was on top of the situation, Lt. Col. Bostic said the health ministry was actively mapping out locations where suspected cases were reported.
He told journalists: “We have been mapping information in relation to persons who have been suspected of contracting dengue, and we have been targeting those areas with the current capacity that we have, and that will continue throughout the next several months, and especially when we have the equipment that we can deploy all of the teams that we now have at our disposal.”
Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Kenneth George had earlier stated that in relation to the Graeme Hall Swamp, Christ Church, the ministry had always looked at it very carefully given that on a small basis it contained the Anopheles and the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, both potentially disease-carrying species.
Dengue fever is carried by female mosquitoes mainly of the Aedes aegypti species. These mosquitoes are also vectors of chikungunya and Zika viruses. There have been no reports of yellow fever, which is also carried by the Aedes aegypti, for decades, neither have their been cases of malaria which is usually transmitted by the anopheles species.
While noting the ministry’s continued commitment to ensuring the southern part of Barbados was always fogged and that teams go out on a repetitive basis, Dr George added: “Our challenge is that, yes, we did indicate that for October, our levels were a little higher than the standard call, so, it did meet the threshold for an outbreak [of dengue], but fortunately for November those levels turned back to the levels that have been seen in previous years.”
Acknowledging that there was increased activity and several hospitalisations, the public health official said: “You might have heard in the press that there were several deaths in the region, but fortunately Barbados, we have been, I would say, blessed, but we have to keep up our guard on this, and while in a COVID pandemic, the Ministry of Health will keep its eyes on all areas of public health significance. That is what we try to do – to make sure that the public is safe.”
Dr George reminded Barbadians that maintaining public health required cooperation from the public. The medical chief told householders to check their properties twice weekly for mosquito larvae.
(IMC)
