PRESSING ISSUE

IT is not only important to deal with local dengue fever cases, but Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic contended that it was just as important to manage the mosquito population on the island.

As it is widely known, the Aedes aegypti mosquito spreads dengue fever. Bostic, the Minister of Health and Wellness, explained that the ministry faces the challenges including adequate personnel and that dealing with the mosquito population in Barbados was a pressing issue.

“We started to address those challenges by contracting some persons to come and assist the environmental health officers because as you would appreciate we are still dealing with COVID, we are still dealing with NCDs, still dealing with the delivery of our normal healthcare services.”

Bostic, who was speaking at a recent press conference at the Pan American Health Organisation headquarters in Dayrell’s Road, St. Michael, said that the contracted personnel were trained and put into the field regarding the identification of mosquito-breeding sites. The ministry has also ordered hand-held fogging machines along with one larger machine to be mounted onto a truck, which would bring the fleet to five vehicles.

“We have been able to do some mapping where the complaints were coming from, so that there is a targeted approach that is going to be employed. That has started, but we are still awaiting some of the equipment to arrive and we have divided the island into two sectors with two teams working from the South and North, inwards towards each other,” said the minister.

Dr. Kenneth George, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), had reported earlier that there had been two recent dengue-related deaths. One was an eight-year-old and according to Dr. George had a significant pre-existing condition, while the other had no predisposed conditions and that was worrying.

“Our reports for the month of December did not show a rise from beyond the threshold level. We are here to encourage Barbadians, particularly as we know that there has been an outbreak in the region with several deaths, that they have a role to play while the Ministry will continue to play its role with respect to investigating complaints and carrying out our fogging related activities,” said Dr. George.

The CMO pointed out that the dengue surveillance was being given special attention, but the numbers were within the expected threshold for this time of year. He expanded by saying that the ministry took averages of dengue cases and compared them yearly.

“In Barbados, we know that every four to five years we tend to get an outbreak of dengue fever. We monitor those monthly averages and compare each one to previous months to get an indication on if we are getting beyond ourselves and into outbreak territory,” he said.

Referencing the month of October, Dr. George stated that Barbados went over the threshold but since then had come back to the norm. He also urged Barbadians to help where they could, saying that the situation was not only the responsibility of the Government but all communities of the island. (AS)