Ministry of Health: Almost half of dengue cases in Victoria

THE Ministry of Health has identified the counties of Victoria, Caroni, St Georges East and St Patrick as the areas with the highest confirmed cases of dengue, at a press briefing on September 13 in which the ministry updated the nation on the efforts to limit the spread of the fever.

Among the four counties, Victoria was identified as being the area for 41 per cent of the confirmed cases. Caroni had 14.4 per cent of the cases, St Georges East had 13.6 per cent of the cases, St Patrick had 12.3 per cent of the cases.

“While other counties have cases and we do encourage everyone to take the necessary precautions, these areas are where the majority of cases have been confirmed to date,” said Dr Avery Hinds while presenting on September 13 at the ministry’s offices on Queen’s Park East.

These figures, the ministry said, was out of a total of 1,387 confirmed cases for the year so far. Hinds said the cases for the year started small with 17 in January, but peaked in July at 652. Last month, the ministry counted 424 confirmed cases.

Hinds noted that there was a difference between the confirmed cases, which is the total number of cases for the year, and the number of people currently recovering from dengue.

He said while the ministry did not have numbers of the active cases, only the people who were recently infected and are recovering are actual active cases.

“It is important to remember that the disease itself is fairly self-limiting,” he said. “It would basically run a course of about one-two weeks.”

Deyalsingh: 994 notices for maintenance issued

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh made yet another appeal to the public to maintain their homes, yards and lots, as he revealed that 994 notices for maintenance of yards, and 43 legal proceedings.

“When a public health inspector goes into the community, they will see a home or a yard with containers that can breed mosquitoes, and they will issue a notice. That notice is for you to clean your yard,”

“We will revisit in seven-14 days and if you have not taken action then we will institute legal proceedings.”

He said the best way to control the mosquito population is to focus on source reduction – removal of containers with stagnant waters, cleaning drains, plant pots, and disposing of trash and tires.

“This is the support that we are not getting – tires, flower pots, flowers. People love their plants but human life is more important than plant life. People are not heeding warnings. These simple measures in your homes can have a very positive impact on the numbers and deaths.”

He said that while spraying areas will kill adult mosquitoes, they spend 75 per cent of their lives in water and are not affected. He added that mosquitoes take an average of ten days to go from the pupa stage to an adult. Newsday understands that areas can only be sprayed in three-month periods.

“So we cannot spray every seven-ten days to knock down adult mosquitoes. It is physically impossible and scientifically irresponsible,” he said. “Over frequent spraying will negatively affect human health. It would negatively affect the health of other insects, wild life, birds, bees, pets, and it will disrupt the ecosystem. It is also dangerous to human health. And the mosquitoes build up resistance against the spraying.”

Couva/Tabaquite councillor: IVCD needs funding

While councillor for Couva/Tabaquite Ryan Rampersad did not seem surprised with the high figures of dengue cases in Victoria County, he raised concern over the capacity of the Insect Vector Control Department (IVCD), claiming that they have not been fully resourced.

He said the corporation has been doing what it can to support IVCD in its attempts to contain the mosquito population, but the corporation also faces its own challenges.

“IVCD indicated to us in July that it was overwhelming for them to respond to cases, and they were not always able to respond in a timely manner,” he said. “They only have one ULV machine (the truck-borne spraying machine that sprays areas) and it broke down. They have to borrow from other counties. We are saying that the minister of health ought to ensure that the sufficient resource go to the agencies that are responsible.”

He said corporation workers have collaborated with IVCD in the county, and corporation workers trained by the IVCD have engaged in residual spraying.

“We have sprayed in Welcome Village, Dow Village, California and Todd’s Road, among others,” he said. “Officers from Savonnetta Fire Station indicated that they were not getting any attention. We sprayed their compound today. It is an ongoing thing. When the requests come in, once we can facilitate we will do that.”

He said the corporation sourced a thermal fogger, which costs between $10,000-$15,000 and plan to source another one at the end of this month. The corporation also engaged in an exercise at the behest of the Local Government Minister where CEPEP workers were taken to clean unkempt lots and properties, during the July/August vacation.

He said because the corporation has a significant staff shortage, the exercise had a major effect on the corporations day-to-day operations.

“We have a shortfall of almost 400 employees in our corporation, this is from a manpower audit almost four years ago. With the shortfall of employees we were being called off the job. We have cemeteries, recreation grounds, roadways, drains to clean. So pulling away our workers for six weeks, we felt the impact of that, leaving our recreation grounds and cemeteries in a state of abandonment.”

He said his constituency is one of the largest, encompassing parts of the Victoria county and two thirds of Caroni.

“When you look at the number of abandoned lots and so on, it is impossible for us to go and cut these people’s lots on a regular basis.”