Deyalsingh: One house can breed 16,000 mosquitoes

HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said he recently visited a home with the potential to breed 16,000 disease-spreading mosquitoes.

He was responding to a question in the Senate yesterday from Opposition Senator Taharqa Obika on what precautionary measures were being taken in response to a warning from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) about a possible dengue outbreak.

Opposition Senator Khadijah Ameen asked what measures were being taken to ensure agencies have the necessary resources ,as there have been instances when there were no chemicals or manpower.

Deyalsingh replied: "I completely refute your argument that there were no chemicals. The country has never been short of chemicals. And that is shown in the figures that I gave you.

"Why spread those rumours? That is clearly untrue. Why would you do that?"

He said government alone cannot address the issue, because mosquitoes can develop a resistance to the chemicals being used. He explained this was a global problem and for this reason spraying could be only done every four months. Deyalsingh said the ministry has therefore been focusing on source reduction at the level of the householder.

He recalled he visited a house recently where a woman was blaming the Government for mosquitoes.

"I walked into her yard (and) there were 21 flowerpots with 21 saucers with 21 breeding sites, because each saucer had water. It is not inconceivable in those 21 saucers ten females could lay eggs. Each female could lay 150 eggs – that is 31,500 eggs in one yard. And with a one-to-one ratio of male to female – and females are the ones that bite and spread disease – you have 16,000 female mosquitoes being bred in a house. And that is the problem we are facing.

"So the citizens have to get behind with source reduction, because you can't spray more than every four months, because the mosquitoes will develop a resistance."

He said what was needed was a combination of action by the government and the citizen.

"I cannot beg citizens enough – empty your vases. Don't have breeding sites in your homes with flowerpots. All of these things. (including) your barrels and your guttering. Clean them. That is your responsibility; not the State's."