It's often said that many residents of remote Manitoba reserves live in Third World conditions, lacking basic services like indoor plumbing and clean drinking water.
Now, researchers from the University of Manitoba are testing that theory, comparing the tiny, impoverished Caribbean island of Dominica with two northern Manitoba First Nations.
Brenda Elias, a professor of community health, suspects Dominica is taking the issue of running water more seriously than Canada, even though Canada is the far wealthier, more technologically advanced nation.
... Over the summer [2010], Elias and her team completed their field work in Dominica, where they surveyed roughly half of the 625 homes in eight hamlets where the indigenous Kalinago people live.
Conditions were disturbingly similar to what exists in 1,400 remote Manitoba First Nations homes. Most homes...communal water taps were located a hike from many homes, and water quality was often unreliable. ...
The survey found that...dengue fever is beginning to be a problem like never before.
(Source: http://tinyurl.com/winnipegpress)
THING YOU DID NOT KNOW ABOUT MOSQUITOES.... It would take 1,200,000 mosquitoes, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood. (Sources: discovermagazine.com / anannimos.blogspot.com) - Now you know.
The views or pronouncements expressed on this blog site in no way represent or are intended to represent the official or unofficial positions, policies and practices of any Environmental Health Division or Department, government or non-governmental agency anywhere. They must be attributed solely to the Administrators of the site and separately to the Commenters who share their own view points with the Administrators and readers, except where otherwise explicitly indicated.
My name is M. Minchington Israel. I am an Environmental Health Officer with a special interest in Vector Control. I am currently employed with the Government of the British Virgin Islands. Previously, I worked as an EHO in the Commonwealth of Dominica.
CDC H1N1 Flu Updates
Hi Tom,
I can safely say that Dengue in Guadeloupe is back down to endemic levels. This means that although the island is no longer in an epidemic, the occasional case is still to be expected, this being the tropics. Tom, This is as good a time as any to visit the southern Caribbean, let alone the French West Indies.
We went so far as to check a couple of secondary sources that we rely to corroborate information…and nothing.
Let me cap this advisory by saying that the French authorities have a solid reputation of sharing Dengue news in a timely fashion. If there was even a hint of an upsurge in cases post 2011, we would already have something to that effect in the Inbox at the Woodshed.
So, get on that plane and head on down.
Minchie
WEC
Hi Minchie,
Did you happen to hear anything on Guadeloupe?
I did see something on your site which was a Carib scorecard for early 2011 and that one had said that Guad was sporadic and below average levels so I took that to mean that the 2010 outbreak was over (I hope)! Let me know if you have anything more recent because I need to decide today. Thanks!
Tom