UNC: Why dengue not an emergency?

OPPOSITION Senator Anil Roberts has criticised Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh for saying dengue is not a public health emergency. He said four deaths from dengue means it should be declared an emergency.

Speaking at the UNC’s Sunday media briefing in Chaguanas on July 21, Roberts quoted from a newspaper article on the struggles faced by the Insect Vector Control Division as dengue cases rise.

He asked why the division would be struggling.

“Isn’t a PNM government in place? Is a Cabinet, it’s an allocation of funds in the budget? So there’s only one answer. The PNM does not think your health and safety is a priority and therefore has not directed resources to Insect Vector (Control).

“We are facing an outbreak of a vector-borne disease because the PNM cannot monitor, strategise, plan, implement to save you from mosquitoes, far less from criminal, gun-wielding bandits, with no FULs, with illegal ammunition and illegal weapons.”

Roberts asked how there could have been an outbreak when the science proves dengue is preventable and controllable.

“You need to educate the population. You need to keep resources in the hands of the government officials and agents that are responsible for monitoring and eventually dealing with any potential risk or danger of mosquito infestation.

“The Health Minister, who is totally unqualified and not suited for purpose, is the one telling you that four people dead of dengue is not a public health emergency.

“We in the UNC beg to differ, and we have doctors of decades of specialist intelligence and qualifications who would tell you that one life lost to dengue is a public health emergency, far less for four, simply because it is preventable.

“It is the lack of will, the lack of investment, the lack of putting resources by the PNM, because any dollar on saving your lives, spent on direct charges, is a dollar less for the PNM to steal.”

On July 19, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the current uptick in dengue cases would not be declared a public health emergency as it did not meet the international criteria for doing so.

Up to July 19, there were 392 laboratory confirmed cases and four deaths due to dengue. Roberts noted that cases of any disease tend to be under-reported.