Principal Environmental Health Officer at the Six Roads Polyclinic, Maurice Gaskin delivering the lecture.
Ministry of Health: Mosquito fight critical
Fri, 10/28/2016 - 12:00am
By:
Peta Rowe-Forde
Deadly mosquitoes need to be eliminated!
This is the strong message being sent by officials from the Ministry of Health as they continue their campaign to rid Barbados of mosquitoes. That point was raised by Principal Environmental Health Officer at the Six Roads Polyclinic, Maurice Gaskin, who was speaking at the University of the West Indies/Central Bank of Barbados discussion on ‘Sustaining the Community Engagement and Public Education to Eradicate the Zika Disease’ at the Grande Salle yesterday.
Gaskin alerted the audience that there are thousands of species of mosquitoes in the world and so far, Barbados has three of them. The Culex Mosquito, the Anopheles Mosquito and the most commonly known Aedes Aegypti Mosquito. According to Gaskin, the Culex Mosquito feeds from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. and can often carry diseases such as Lymphatic Filariasis after biting certain animals such as horses and birds and carrying their parasites. Lymphatic Filariasis often results in elephantiasis, which is a parasitic infection that causes severe swelling.
Secondly, Gaskin turned his attention to the Anopheles mosquito. This mosquito – which is found in Graeme Hall Swamp – carries malaria. Its feeding times are 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. and again at 10 p.m. until midnight. Gaskin pointed out that this disease is the cause of death for 3.5 to five million persons in Africa and Pakistan, and for it to be present in Barbados it only takes one malaria-infected person to visit the swamp and be bitten by an Anopheles Mosquito to start its spread.
He added that just as the Culex stops feeding at 7 a.m., the Aedes Aegypti starts and goes right through the day until 6 p.m., when the Culex starts again.
Gaskin reminded all that the Aedes Aegypti mosquito transmits yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue and Zika. However, yellow fever, which is acquired when mosquitoes bite monkeys, is not prevalent in Barbados because the Green Monkeys that inhabit the island are not good carriers of the fever. Nevertheless, chikungunya, dengue and Zika are no strangers to Barbadians, and he outlined that it is possible to contract chikungunya and dengue at the same time, which can yield a deadly result.
Given this, Gaskin stated that the amount of mosquito breeding that is happening in Barbados should not exist. Outlining several ways to check for and eliminate the breeding of mosquitoes, he made mention of the Health Services Control of Mosquitoes 1970 Regulations, which can result in those found breeding mosquitoes to be brought before the law courts. The regulations outline that a person found guilty of such can be fined $5 000 and/or three months in prison, as well as an additional $200 fine for everyday that the offence continues.
Noting that fogging is not the sole solution to eliminating the mosquito, he explained that this only eliminates adults and eggs and larvae remain unharmed. Therefore, eradicating conducive breeding environments is the way to go.