BREAKING NEWS
COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS
The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is taking no chances with Dengue this year. Just one Suspected Case somewhere in the southern part of the island (Minister of Health, Dr. Hubert Minnis, would not pinpoint the locality) has sent health officials in New Providence into “crisis mode,” to quote The Nassau Guardian. Fresh on their minds are the experiences of 2011 when 7,000 Dengue Cases were logged at a rate of 1,500 per week at the peak of the outbreak in mid-August.
Minister of Health Minnis told the Guardian the Doctor’s Hospital notified his ministry of the case in January. ”We rapidly responded in collaboration with the Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) and did our necessary surveillance, and subsequently aggressively fogged the area[s] where the case may have been,” Minnis said.
Mosquito index levels are low in The Bahamas and would not likely support a full-blown Dengue Fever outbreak. Nevertheless, it is still critically important for the surveillance and fogging to continue especially now that travellers are returning home from the Carnivals in the southern Caribbean and Central and South America.
The Bahamas cannot afford a repeat of the 2011 Dengue outbreak.
I can see why.
Source: The Nassau Guardian
DENVax vaccine undergoes Phase 2 trials
Leading clinical researchers in Columbia, Puerto Rico, Singapore and Thailand are currently testing the safety and immune responses to an investigational Dengue vaccine called DENVax. DENVax is an Inviragen, Inc. vaccine being developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is an attempt to deliver a four-way vaccine against the four virus types that cause Dengue. Phase 1 trials concluded successfully in Columbia and is headed for Phase 2 in Columbia, PR, Singapore and Thailand.
Phase 2 is a two-part evaluation to evaluate immune responses first in adults aged 21 and over, then adolescents from 11 to 20 years old, pre-teens in the 6 to 10 age range and finally children as young as 18 months. The second stage involves the administering of the dual-dose vaccine to hundreds of children, 18 months to 11 years.
The data from Phase 2 will form the basis of Phase 3 efficacy studies that should prove once and for all if DENVax can immunise people against Dengue in endemic countries.
More here…
What if a credible vaccine candidate emerges?
What if a credible vaccine candidate emerges in the not too distant future? A number of research units are hard at work in a spirited race to market one. Some units are getting close too. They have even begun human trials so this is not exactly a pipe dream.
When happens then when a vaccine is eventually approved? Will those who need it most be able to get it?
The CDC and Dengue experts have their eyes on this issue.
More here…
FDA permits marketing of first test to help diagnose dengue fever
Normally, you go to the doctor’s office with complaints of a flu-like illness. Is it Dengue? Is it not?
The physician listens and compares what you relate with the observations made during the examination. Is it Dengue? Is is not?
To confirm the doctor’s suspicions, you are invariably sent to the laboratory to have your blood drawn for testing.
Now, physicians are being armed with a new tool to help them hasten the diagnostic process.
This is a significantly important development considering the high rate of misdiagnosis that goes on in doctors’ offices.
St. Kitts and Nevis
Environmental Health Officers are among a batch of Public Health workers from the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis to be familiarised with a manual on Integrated Vector Management (IVM). It was developed by Dr. Samuel Rawlins, Nobel Laureate and eminent Caribbean emeritus scientist with the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Dr. Rawlins, himself a native of St. Kitts, ran a three-day workshop for the health workers from Monday, November 07 2011 in Charlestown, Nevis.
The manual was the culmination of a series of consultations Dr. Rawlins had with Ministries of Health of member states.
So far, Dr. Rawlins has facilitated similar workshops in other Caribbean islands.
Dr. Samuel Rawlins earned a Nobel Prize in 2007.
More here…
LSU researcher aims to predict emerging viruses
Much research over the decades has been concentrated on the vexing issue of a lack of an effective Dengue vaccine. But how about being able to better predict how the Dengue virus is transmitted, how the disease is spread and its impact on public health measures designed to control it?
Well, these lines of research are to be advanced with the injection of a US$3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to researchers of the Louisiana State University, Tulane University and the University of New Mexico.
Led by Associate Professor of the LSU Christopher Mores, this money is to be disbursed over the next five years and paves the way for Dr. Mores and his consortium to join an NIH study that uses modelling techniques to understand the spread of contagion and measure how that impacts public health measures.
This US$3 million dollar grant is, however, a drop in the bucket compared to the US$45 million the agency handed to Silver Spring biotech firm, United Therapeutics requiring Unither Virology to develop a treatment – not a vaccine – for Dengue.
More here…
PUERTO RICO
What a difference a year makes. Imagine that, one year ago, this month, Puerto Rico was on the downside of a Dengue epidemic that at the very height, in August 2010, was sickening between 900 and 1,000 people. At that juncture, the historical average for the country (records taken between 1986 and 2010) was a few hairs below 200 infections per week. The epidemic threshold, the stage at which an epidemic would be officially declared, was half that at 100.
Fast forward to 2011, Puerto Rico is once again in the stranglehold of another Dengue epidemic, although barely. This year, the numbers are far less dramatic.
One would expect that when the figures for the week, October 21-28 become available, they will show that the epidemic in Puerto Rico would not have reached the historical peak.
More here…
Source: Dengue Surveillance Weekly Report for Week 38
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
This past September, the Siparia Regional Corporation (SRC) of Trinidad committed a sum of US$50, 000 (TT$500, ooo) to an ambitious Dengue Eradication Programme covering the Administrative Districts of Erin, La Brea, Siparia and Oropouche/Fyzabad. This pronouncement came from business Leo Doodnath, Chairman of the SRC, on September 12 2011.
The plan, which was due to commence in mid-September, entails a massive clean-up campaign; a public education drive; fumigation; and an improvement in communications.
An inter-sectoral team has been set up to oversee the operations.
More here…
CAYMAN ISLANDS
Cayman Islands health authorities have placed the country under a Dengue advisory. This precautionary measure, adopted in late September, was instituted in the face of outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease in several countries across the Caribbean and the Americas.
Dengue Fever is not endemic in Cayman, according to health officials. However, the Dengue mosquito, namely Aedes aegypti, is very much present there.
But in spite of their best efforts, by early October, Cayman Islands had recorded their first Confirmed Case for 2011.
More here…
COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA
Dominica health authorities declared a Dengue Outbreak on September 13, 2011. This, as 15 cases of Dengue Fever were confirmed in August with results for 9 more cases still pending.
The news came in a press release, which omitted to give any justification. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Johnson did, however, go before the microphone on September 16 to reassure the public that none of the cases was of the severe Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF) form. No deaths have been recorded.
By activating the National Dengue Emergency Plan, National Pest and Termite Control Ltd. and the EHD itself have been given the mandate to investigate Suspected and Confirmed Dengue Cases and intensify mosquito surveillance and fogging operations.
The Ministry of Health through the Health Promotion Resource Center is required to conduct health information sessions with the public.
Educational materials like leaflets and flyers are to be distributed and posters put up, backed up by Public Service Announcements and discussions on radio and TV.
But most importantly, residents of the Roseau Health District where the Dengue Outbreak is concentrated must do their part.
Whether there was compliance or not, the Dengue situation in the Commonwealth of Dominica was on the decline by the end of September.
Not only has the number of cases been on the decline since, so have the weekly hospitalizations. However, the Ministry of Health data do show a widening of the geographic spread of the disease from the Roseau Health District to all districts islandwide.
As a means of bolstering this approach, the Environmental Health Department proposes to enforce existing laws pertaining to the breeding of mosquitoes.
“There are people who are constantly found breeding mosquitoes and they are now being issued with notices. They will be prosecuted if the measures are not taken,” Scotland says.
More here…
Nevis
with at least 2 Confirmed and 1 Suspected Case of Dengue, Mr. Anthony Webbe, Principal Public Health Officer in the Nevis Ministry of Health’s Environmental Health Services is calling on Nevisians to help in the fight against mosquito borne diseases.
In an SKNVibes interview, Mr. Webbe reminded the public that they have a moral duty to eliminate containers to prevent mosquito breeding, emphasizing source reduction.
More here…
Antigua
Extrapolating a report by the Antigua Observer, Andre Edward, a St. Lucian doctor employed by the Ministry of Health there, posited that the situation in his country would have been worse if the authorities were not proactive. ”The peak of the rainfall season in St. Lucia is September, October… If we did not take steps to curb the spread of Dengue Fever in September and October, it would have been worse for us,” said Dr. Edward.
Echoing his MOH, Dr. Edward urged residents of Antigua and Barbuda to take heed of Dengue advice given by their public health authorities to prevent an outbreak such as what has occurred in his home country and Trinidad.
Unfortunately, Antiguans do not seem to be following the well-publicized advice given to them on how to manage stagnant water for it turns out that non-compliance on their part has caused alarm across Antigua and Barbuda as the number of Dengue cases begins to rise.
Chief Health Inspector Lionel Michael did not clear the air on that when he issued a Public Notice on September 10 to warn the population that he had confirmation from CAREC (Caribbean Epidemiological Center) in Trinidad that their tests were showing that Dengue-4 is in circulation in Antigua and Barbuda.
One thing is certain, the Aedes aegypti mosquito is overwhelming residents of Antigua and Barbuda. This from Chief Health Inspector Michael on caribarena.com.
More here…
St. Lucia
The Ministries of Health and Education have joined forces to enhance Dengue awareness among teachers and pupils of the island’s schools.
In an OECS Newslink report, September 05, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Merlyn Frederick said that the goals of the exercise is to eliminate the breeding grounds of the black and white Dengue mosquito.
More here…
Cuba
Like the rest of the Caribbean, Cuba is highly vulnerable to the Dengue virus. However, it must be noted that the country has a remarkable track record in pre-empting Dengue outbreaks, or at best mitigating them.
Similarly, Cuba shares the high temperatures and intense rainfall that the islands have experienced since May of this year.
Where Cuba deviates from its neighbours is in regards to the drought conditions that exist in the western territories.
Taken together, Cuba could become prone to an epidemic risk. The Cuban health authorities are well aware of this. Thus, every family is being called upon to help control the Dengue mosquito.
On the Government’s side, an island-wide sanitation and fogging campaign is on, concentrated as it were in the worst affected locales. Doctors and nurses are out in those neighbourhoods trying to capture anyone with signs and symptoms of Dengue.
All things considered, what Cuba has going for it is a Dengue profile for the period June to July, 2011 that is better than it has ever been since 2006.
More here…
Turks and Caicos
…Bahamas and St. Lucia implicated in TCI Dengue Outbreak
TCI’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rufus Ewing has implicated The Bahamas and St. Lucia for the introduction of Dengue into the Turks and Caicos. CMO Ewing told the Turks and Caicos Weekly News that the three adult cases confirmed to date were all imported, two from The Bahamas and one from St. Lucia. Two of the three, all females by the way, were discharged from hospital; the other lady was still receiving intravenous fluids on Tuesday, August 09, 2011.
Additionally, 30 persons have been hospitalised since mid-July. Most were treated and discharged.
Dr. Ewing is not overly concerned at the moment but cautions Islanders to protect themselves.
The Ministry of Health and Human Services (MOHHS) has placed the Turks and Caicos on a Dengue Alert.
More here…
The Bahamas
The number of people with Dengue Fever is rising in The Bahamas. Minister of Health Dr. Hubert Minnis told the Nassau Guardian that at the end of July there were 90 plus Confirmed Dengue cases on record. Two days later, the minister came back with the news that the cases had more than doubled to 195.
The Ministry issued a statement on Wednesday, July 27 urging the reduction of mosquito breeding grounds.
Minnis expressed confidence that the outbreak is manageable.
The Director of the Environmental Health Services said that a daily fogging campaign is under way.
No deaths have yet been confirmed by the Ministry of Health. That does not mean, however, there are no rumours swirling around. Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Delon Brennen has taken heed of these reports.
More here…
St. Lucia/Trinidad
Unseasonable rains are not exclusive to the Cayman Islands this year. The rest of the Caribbean has had to put up with record-amounts of rainfall and in some cases uncharacteristic flooding and destruction of property and infrastructure.
This has made the health authorities of St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago quite wary.
In the case of St. Lucia, public health officials are worried over what they see as “disturbing” levels of Dengue Fever on the island this year.
Speaking with the media on Wednesday, June 22, 2011, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Merlin Frederick, blamed Hurricane Tomas for the sharp increase in Dengue infections, far surpassing the average for this time of year.
For instance, over 40 cases were logged in May, more than double the total of 18 for all of 2009.
Thus, the health authorities are currently grappling with a Dengue epidemic that has placed St. Lucia’s main hospital under severe strain.
Dr. Frederick also expressed concern that a significant percentage of the cases on record were of the complicated types, which means that the St. Lucian populace has become more naive than ever.
With the Dengue season only just begun, the Dengue picture in St. Lucia does not look good.
For now, the St. Lucia Department of Health has responded with a public education and clean-up campaign, accompanied by house-to-house inspections and spraying.
More here…
Cayman Islands
46 years ago, mosquitoes were so dense in the Cayman Islands, swarms of the pests could suffocate large animals like cow by completely shutting off their air supply. Just imagine then how much of a nuisance they were for the residents.
This situation became so untenable that it prompted the establishment of the Cayman Islands’ Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU).
The MRCU has a never-ending fight on its hands to keep a grip on the gains they have made against the pests. For this reason, MRCU’s planes took to the skies in the latter half of May to mount an assault against the dengue-causing Aedes aegypti ahead of the hurricane season.
It is a well-established fact though, that the Dengue mosquito cannot be successfully controlled without the active involvement of the community at large.
In a May 26 editorial in caycompass.com, the agency asked residents to survey their properties to ensure Grand Cayman remains mostly free from the dangers of dengue fever.
So far, so good. Grand Cayman has been lucky thus far.
More here…
Barbados
A “Meeting On Preventing The Reintroduction Of Malaria In Non-Endemic Countries” was held in Barbados, June 01-02, 2011.
The meeting was called by the PAHO Regional Program and Office of the Caribbean Program Coordination (OCPC) to promote and encourage Malaria planning, awareness, detection, response and information exchange.
More here…
St. Maarten
May 25, 2011
In light of the intermittent showers of one week ago, Health authorities in Dutch St. Maarten have put out a call to islanders to keep their guards up and maintain extra vigilance against the breeding of mosquitoes in and around their homes and businesses.
This against the backdrop of the severe outbreaks of Dengue that both the Dutch and French sides of the island have suffered, especially in recent years.
The CPS (Collective Preventive Services) had already commenced fogging on St. Maarten when the rains came and curtailed the activity.
CPS stresses that community action is vital in protecting the health of the human person, family and neighbours against the bite of the Dengue mosquito.
This warning may have been directed at St. Maarteners, but all of us in the Caribbean basin would be wise to take heed.
More here…
Brazil
On May 09, 2011, The Lancet launched what they called a “Series on Health in Brazil” with the publication of six papers addressing a slate of developmental issues the country is facing. Not the least of the concerns being raised is the troubling six-fold increase in the rate of Dengue infections. The launching took place in Brazilia.
Taken in context, Dengue is one of the few failures Brazil suffers from today.
PAPER 3: Successes and failures in the control of infectious diseases in Brazil states that in the past decade alone, Brazil recorded 3.5 million cases of Dengue.
With no safe vaccine likely to emerge for years to come, Dengue will no doubt continue to be pose a major challenge for health authorities in Brazil.
More here…
A visual guide on how Dengue is transmitted
The Caribbean is next in line for trial of new mosquito trap
Not too long from now, a new type of mosquito trap may be coming to a Caribbean island near you. Researchers from New Orleans’ Tulane University, working off a US$4.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has partnered with North Carolina State University, the University of California, Davis and the United States Army to perfect a potentially low-cost invention that targets female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which have fed on human blood before. Most devices currently in use and under development more broadly attract females seeking their first blood meals.
Tulane’s trap is a black, one-foot high trash-can looking contraption with a bright red cover filled with an infusion of water laced with special attractants that the mosquitoes like and a pesticide to kill the eggs.
One can well imagine that if the trap works – and there is no reason why it shouldn’t – adult female mosquitoes will have no way of getting out of it alive; nor will their progeny make it past the egg stage.
Iquitos, Peru is the first site where the researchers will test their trap.
More here…
Us Government takes scissors to dengue funding
WEC | March 07, 2011
While we slept last year, the government of the United States was busy cutting funding to the Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases (DVBID) from US$39 to US$12 million. In the immediate firing line of the government’s red ink pen were the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Puerto Rico Dengue Branch and Colorado State University’s Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. It so happens that the PR branch is the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) reference center for the Caribbean region. Colorado State is responsible for researching, tracking and treating infectious diseases such as Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever.
The result of this would have been a loss of essential jobs, expertise, human capital and technical resources so crucial to maintaining a high enough level of surveillance of Vector-Borne diseases.
Emory University‘s disease ecologist Gonzalo Vazquez-Prokopec and colleagues from the Cairns Tropical Public Health Unit, reaffirmed in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases that the costs to Caribbean countries of delayed Dengue outbreak response, infection-related deaths and disability could rise exponentially.
The Emory researchers drew their conclusions from studies of the 2003 and 2009 Dengue outbreaks in Cairns, Australia. They were able to show that the average cost of the Cairns outbreaks, in terms of Vector Control, case diagnosis, blood screening and sick days, would have sky-rocketed. The researchers then correlated their findings to the May 2010 Florida Dengue outbreak.
The Division of Vector-Borne Diseases of Colorado State has also been doing some really important work in the area of vector biology that could have been seriously affected by the government cuts.
Then there is Inviragen, a spin-off company that licensed technology from Colorado State to bring a Dengue vaccine to human clinical trials.
As an aside, Inviragen is one of several companies rushing to bring a Dengue vaccine to market.
In November 2010, Sanofi Pasteur’s Sanofi-Aventis promised to have a vaccine on the market in two years’ time, maybe four depending on what you read.
Two other companies with a stake in the horse race are GlaxoSmithKline and Brazil’s Instituto Butantan.
The US government’s National Institutes of Health and the University of Queensland is in there too. Researchers at the UofQ, led by Professor S. O’Neill, having discovered that a bacterium called Wolbachia has some potential as a Dengue Fever vaccine, began testing their hypothesis January in a Cairns, Australia neighbourhood.
(Sources: healthrelatedinfos.com, npr.org, theviraldiseases.com, timesofindia)
Realising the reach and extent of thee consequences of cutting funding, some scientific societies, the American Red Cross and Senators pressured the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education and House of Representatives to reverse the decision to withhold the US$26.7 million from the CDC. The Senate and the Congress repented, the Senate in July 2010.
If this does not strike a nerve in the weaker Caribbean economies, I do not know what will.
(Sources: plosntds.org, sciencedaily.com, ncbr.com)
Much more here…
Trinidad and Tobago
On the recommendation of a Joint Select Committee of the Trinidad and Tobago parliament, which this past January concluded a forensic examination of the Insect Vector Control Division (IVCD), the Health and Public Utilities Ministries of Trinidad have agreed in principle to join forces in tackling the problem that barrels pose in the breeding of the Dengue mosquito.
Chief Medical Officer of Health, Anton Cumberbatch makes it clear that his ministry supports the idea of introducing an alternate type of container to mitigate the problem. But the CMO is well aware that cost is an issue for the people.
With the prevalence of Dengue worsening and the cyclical peaks narrowing from an average of every five years to every two years, the public would be well advised to be on guard by inspecting and eliminating mosquito breeding places on their premises.
The JSC report also cited a couple of other shortcomings regarding Dengue.
More here…
GUYANA
The Ministry of Health of Guyana hosted a five-day workshop in early-March to prepare a Draft Integrated Strategy for Prevention and Control for Guyana. A Dengue plan of this type must bring to bear the coordinated involvement of community stakeholders in the implementation of the six key components of IMS-Dengue.
The Implementation and Preparedness Plans of Action coming out of the workshop should result in a coordinated, decentralised response to any future Dengue event. Critical to this effort is the extent to which school-age children are involved.
An effective and efficient Dengue response plan for the country could not be more urgent.
More here…
THE FUTURE OF DENGUE IS HERE
Three months into the new year and Dengue reports from the islands of the Caribbean are far from flowing in. Whatever is available to date, call that a trickle to a stop.
We know from the news of the deaths in St. Lucia and Sint Maarten that there is Dengue in our region already. It is just that the Ministries of Health have not yet shared all of their data with the Caribbean Epidemiological Center (CAREC), the agency responsible for gathering same from the English-speaking Caribbean and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which takes care of the wider Hispanic Caribbean through the rest of the Americas.
More here…
Dutch st. maarten
Another person is dead, dengue blamed
A 59-year-old Dutch Sint Maarten man is dead and Dengue may be to blame. St. Martin News Network (SMN News) ascribes this information to Collective Preventive Services (CPS) of Sint Maarten’s Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour.
The Guana Bay resident was pronounced dead January 20, 2011, four days after being admitted to the Sint Maarten Medical Center Emergency Room for reasons other than Dengue.
What is for certain is that the death was put down to Dengue and Vector Control personnel responded.
More here…
opinion
I am beginning to change my mind about the behaviour of some mosquitoes, particularly the Dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti) and the Black Marsh mosquito (Aedes taeniorhynchus).
Casual observations are that Aedes aegypti now remains active as late as 08:40 at nights. If that is proven to be the norm, this would effectively debunk the long-held theory that aegypti is a day-biting mosquito.
Another fascinating observation is that Aedes aegypti can now be found on the attack in open sunlight, in the middle of a bright afternoon. Now, whatever happened to the idea that aegypti tends to shy away into shady places, bites on the shaded side of the ankles, for instance, and is averse to sunlight?
On the other hand, the Black Marsh mosquito, known to commence its life cycle immediately after rainfall, tends to remain in active feeding mode not much later than one hour after sundown. I believe that the behaviour of this mosquito is evolving. Why then would it be seen attacking incoming passengers, myself included, at the T.B. Lettsome International Airport in the British Virgin Islands, at 09:30pm.
I have not thoroughly explored the reasons for this and thus cannot provide empirical evidence to explain away the recent behaviour of both A. aegypti and the Black Marsh mosquito.
I am, however, at liberty to speculate that because urban areas are so well lit now, more than ever before, and that Aedes aegypti is under such pressure from the Vector Control authorities who have reduced their density to single-digit percentages, their survival instincts have forced them to adapt hence lengthening biting activity from late afternoon well into the evening.
The jury is out on why it is that Aedes taeniorhynchus has extended its biting times at the Airport and nowhere else as far I could tell.
Brazil
In the state of Goiania, there was a 190 percent increase in Dengue Cases for the period January to November 20, 2010 over the corresponding period the year before. Translated into real numbers, this amounts to 102, 726 cases and 69 deaths in that one state.
The situation may not be as bad in Sao Paulo, but it is bad enough. That state recorded 322 cases in all of 2009. By comparison, the total as at November 10, 2010 was 5, 576 for an incidence rate of 51.6 cases per 100, 000 inhabitants of which there are 11 million.
Cayman Islands
A trial at the Cayman Islands’ Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) could help to get rid of the mosquito responsible for the spread of Dengue. British based company Oxitec has released genetically modified mosquitoes (call them mutant mosquitoes) into the wild in Cayman in the hope that this will cause the Aedes aegypti mosquito population to drop by interfering with their ability to reproduce.
Oxitec’s co-founder Luke Alphey explained how the trials of his ground-breaking Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) works to the BBC Caribbean Report in its November 11 edition.
The Oxitec scientists claim that upon releasing 3 million (roughly ten times the wild population, they cut the target species population on Grand Cayman down by 80%
Oxitec and the MRCU think that in time, there will just not be enough mosquitoes to spread the Dengue virus to sustain an outbreak of the disease in Cayman.
The results of this small trial is encouraging, Alphey told BBC Caribbean Report.
As for potential negative impacts, Alfey assures us that the sterile males, pose no threats to the rest of the ecosystem. So environmentalists can rest easy. Or can they?
More here…
Barbados/Puerto Rico
The worst may be over for Dengue in the Caribbean region. For one thing, the frequency of Dengue case reports, so crucial in monitoring the incidence of the disease across the islands, has slowed considerably. Whether this means that there is not much to talk about any more is anyone’s guess.
However, some good news did emerge from Barbados and Puerto Rico between the second fortnight of the month of October and the second week of November.
Caribbean News Now published a story on November 15 that cited a Barbados Ministry of Health (MoH) release, declaring the Dengue outbreak over.
The Barbados MoH was actually referring to the reduction in the number of reported cases of Dengue for the five-week period ending on October 30, 2010.
The report went on to declare that Confirmed Cases of Dengue were back to the low endemic levels the country is accustomed to.
The country’s main hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, was seeing declining levels of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF).
Nonetheless, active and passive systems of surveillance remain in place as normal.
The Health Promotion team has been producing television, radio and print media advertisements to broaden the reach of the EHO’s.
Fogging is done as a last resort.
In the case of Puerto Rico, where the Dengue numbers have begun to slide, unlike Barbados which has come out of its outbreak, P.R. is still well above the epidemic threshold. P.R. has been in epidemic mode all year long, save for a brief period in January.
On a positive note, the outbreak has peaked and is on the decline.
More here…
The BBC Caribbean Report of September 13 2010, citing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), had it that a record 20 people died from Dengue Fever in Puerto Rico between January and Friday, September 10 this year. The report also revealed that PR health officials were investigating dozens of additional deaths and over 11,000 Suspected Cases of the mosquito-borne disease. There have been more than 80,000 Dengue Cases in the region altogether.
More here…
Guadeloupe and Martinique
According to JTV News in the British Virgin Islands, the French army concentrated its search and destroy operations around schools hoping to protect students by the time they returned to class on September 03. It was also hoped that Public Service Announcements would hit the airwaves in time for school. Guadeloupe and Martinique recorded 33,000 and 25,600 Dengue Cases respectively since February. 3,400 and 4,000 Cases were seen in August alone.
More here…
The Bahamas and Dengue Fever had hardly crossed paths this season when seemingly, out of the September blue, the disease was reportedly on the rise there with one Suspected death, a 23 year-old Pharmacist.
Bahamian health officials would neither confirm nor deny it to the Bahamas Press, but BP nevertheless published the news on September 23.
That very September 23, a Public Advisory on Dengue was released to the media by the Bahamas Department of Public Health and the Ministry of Health indicating how many Suspected Dengue Cases had been Laboratory Confirmed and how cases many were still under investigation.
More here…
Turks and Caicos Islands
The Environmental Health Department of the Turks and Caicos’ Public and Environmental Health Board announced recently that spray planes were in the air and a public awareness campaign was under way to persuade people to tackle Dengue Fever.
These preventative measures were instituted in conjunction with a wider public health effort to prevent cholera from making a jump from Haiti.
PAHO and the CAREC are helping out the TCI.
More here…
St. Maarten
Nine months into the year, Collective Preventive Services (CPS) of Dutch St. Maarten was racking up the Dengue numbers. CPS reported that as of September 24, 349 Suspected Cases were tested of which 96 were confirmed. 13 of those were hospitalized at some point at the Sint Maarten Medical Center. 2 other persons who were hospitalized were negative.
The first 54 Confirmed Dengue Cases having been recorded by July 2010 meant that the Dengue situation on St. Maarten had worsened significantly in the two-month period since.
And the prospects of halting the spread of the disease were not all that good.
More here…
Jamaica/Barbados/Grenada
There was a slight increase in the weekly Confirmed Cases in Jamaica two weeks into August. Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) Cases climbed within the first week of September. And later, it also came to light that there had been one Dengue death in Manchester, Jamaica.
The total number of Dengue Cases was on the rise too. Thus, More than 2,00o communities should have been fogged by the end of September.
As school children returned to the classroom in September, administrators were cautioned to involve their students in search and destroy activities on their campuses.
Other islands such as Barbados, Grenada and Cuba also reported increases in Dengue Fever.
Cuba
The Cuba Dengue season was off to a slow start with the announcement of 67 “imported” cases by the government. Quoting Otto Reinaldo Pelaez of the Cuban Health Ministry’s Transmissible Diseases Department, all 67 entered the country already sick.
Cuba is one of a few countries in the Caribbean region, the British Virgin Islands being another, where the disease is present but active transmission is not occurring.
Belize
August 24 2010
It has been a deadly year for Dengue in Belize. Beds have filled up at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, Belize City. By late August, with the peak season for Dengue yet to come, Belize had already confirmed 807 Classical Dengue Cases. 3 patients died had also died.
The worrying concern for the Belize health authorities are the densely populated areas of Belize City and Caio for no less a reason than the introduction of a potentially new strain of Dengue, either Den-1 or Den-4.
More here…
Dominican Republic
BBC Caribbean Report of August 27, 2010 alerted the territories of the Caribbean to the threat of Dengue Fever as the number of cases continued to rise. The report placed the Dominican Republic at the top of the chain of countries with the highest numbers.
More here…
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sherry Anne Ash, Environmental Health Officer responsible for Vector Control in the Environmental Health Department of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, divulged the number of Dengue cases on record in an NBC Radio programme aired on Sunday, August 22 2010 . EHO Ash also attributed the increase to two factors, rainfall included.
More here…
Grenada
BBC Caribbean Report, August 18 2010
Presumably because of public consternation over the lack of information about the true Dengue picture in the country, a press conference was called by the Ministry of Health of Grenada mid-August to address the situation. The reporters assembled were told that the Dengue toll in Grenada was up to a record 39 cases.
Fortunately, none of the cases progressed to either Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever or Dengue Shock syndrome. In fact, all of them were treated and most had already recovered fully, according to the Grenadian health authorities.
More here…
St. Lucia
The Health Ministry of St. Lucia is concerned about the Dengue epidemic that is spreading in the Caribbean and Latin America. Feeding off OECS Newsline radio reports dated July 28 and August 05, we hear that 17,000 cases were reported in the Caribbean alone up to early June.
Director of the St. Lucia Bureau of Health Promotion, Cyprian Yarde, said in the reports that the Ministry of Health is always on the alert because it is expected that Dengue could become a problem every year. The Ministry has, therefore, mounted a prevention and sensitization campaign in response to the threat being posed to the island.
Director Yarde implied that St. Lucia already had some cases when he stated in the Newsline report of July 28 that there were no deaths to report. He noted further that the cases being seen were of the Dengue-1 and Dengue-2 strains. This he said was the alarming feature of the current outbreak.The problem is that if the same people were to become infected with either Types 1 or 2, they would likely develop the complications of the disease.
That said, Yarde put out a message to residents of St. Lucia to do something to reduce and eliminate mosquito breeding places. He promised that fogging would be undertaken.
More here…
Commonwealth of Dominica
Acting Chief Environmental Health Officer, Anthony Scotland, voiced alarm on July 27 2010 about the encroachment of Dengue into the Caribbean region. In response, Dominica was put on a Dengue Alert in July, but merely as a precautionary measure for a start.
Surveillance around all ports of entry in Dominica was stepped up and Health Alert Cards handed out to arriving passengers at airports and sea ports.
Acting Chief EHO Anthony Scotland, told BBC Caribbean Report that the situation was likely to escalate if persons did not take all necessary precautions to stem the breeding of the Dengue mosquito and, at the same time, halt the importation of the disease from the neighbouring islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Following up, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Johnson of the Commonwealth of Dominica was reported by the OECS Newslink on Friday, September 17 2010 as saying that Dengue Fever was still posing a threat and challenge to health authorities there.
In his statement, Dr. Johnson revised and expanded the geographic spread of the disease in Dominica from the capital Roseau to the west coast village of St. Joseph and the town of Portsmouth to the north-west of the island.
However, the good news was that for the first time since the start of the Dengue outbreak, there was an overall drop in the weekly rate of infections.
More here…
Montserrat
Health officials in Montserrat have taken measures to avoid the spread of the Dengue Fever. This against the backdrop of reports of thousands of infections in the Dominican Republic. Residents of Montserrat were warned to take all necessary precautions to prevent mosquitoes from breeding around their homes.
More here…
Martinique/Guadeloupe
Three months ago in May, Guadeloupe health officials were reporting 30 to 40 cases of Dengue every week. Then on Monday, June 07, a 10-year-old Martinique girl died from complications of Dengue Fever.
Less than a week later, news broke in Martinique that there was an additional death due to Dengue. That story placed the number of cases of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) on the island at 4. 21 other cases were classified as severe at that time. At mid-June, the list of Confirmed Dengue Cases was up to about 500. (Source: Tropical Medical Bureau/proMed)
Hardly past the one-month mark after the Dengue deaths of June 2010 and the number of “Clinically Suggestive” cases of Dengue had multiplied to an unfathomable 1,900 patients. That was just the beginning for in the two-week period starting in mid-July, that number had catapulted to 2,600 with an increasingly high percentage of hospitalizations – 172 in July compared with 87 in June.
The Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS), which reported on these figures in its Friday, August 06 epidemiological update, also revealed that a mere 50-odd patients had been hospitalized for “Biologically Confirmed” Dengue in the first five months of the year, prior to the upsurge in June.
Cumulatively, Martinique had racked up a whopping 18,100 cases from the last week of February to the first week of August. This exceeded the peak of the 2001 Dengue epidemic. In the three months leading up to this landmark, 9 Dengue deaths were registered in Martinique. (Sources: promedmail.org)
Across in Guadeloupe, the Dengue situation was worse still. Over a roughly similar time as obtained in Martinique, that is July 21 to August 03, 2,900 cases “Clinically Suggestive” of Dengue had been logged for a cumulative total of 25,200 from the beginning of the year. 243 Confirmed Cases were hospitalized. Of that number, 94 were DHF Cases. With that, the 2007 record for Dengue infections set during the 2007 Guadeloupe epidemic had been effectively broken. (Source: promedmail.org)
The Dengue types circulating in Martinique up to that point were Dengue 1, 2 and 4. Guadeloupe was seeing only Dengue 1.
More here…
USVI
The USVI was in early June added to the list of Caribbean countries with Dengue. The news of a single case of Dengue Type 2 on St. Thomas in the St. Thomas-St. John district came from USVI Health Commissioner Julia Sheen and the Health Department’s epidemiologist Eugene Tull.
Prior to the start of the hurricane season, Health issued its annual Dengue Alert. The Department’s release also had a promise of fogging and included measures the Department would like the population to take.
Weeks later, 6 more cases of Dengue were reported on St. Thomas.
More here…
St. Maarten
The lessons learned from the latter years of the 1990′s when Dengue raged through the Dutch side, the Department of Health, VSA and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs started a two-month project of premises visits followed by a round of fogging just to get ahead of the disease.
Being proactive, a team of eight was sent into areas of the highest concentrations of infections starting March 15 to conduct the survey and advise and encourage persons in those neighbourhoods to get busy ridding their premises of mosquito breeding places. The inspectors found that St. Maarten had a House Index eight times over the internationally acceptable standard.
One day after the outreach programme ended, the fogging began.
More here…
Guyana
An unnamed, unofficial source surfaced on Kaieteur News online in February with a plea to the Guyana Ministry of Health asking for an intervention in Mahdia, Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni) where all seemed to agree Malaria was running “rampant.”
The evidence provided by an official source placed the rate of Malaria infection in Mahdia at 70%, which marked an upsurge in cases in the region.
The unofficial source told Kaieteur News, “The situation is dire,” adding that no mosquito nets had been distributed to the residents and that their community was not sprayed.
The unofficial source did say though that Mahdia residents were cautioned not to allow themselves to get bitten by mosquitoes. The advice given to them should have been to eliminate stagnant water bodies from the environment, protect potable water supplies to prevent mosquitoes from breeding, wear light-coloured long-sleeved shirts or jerseys and pants, sleep under impregnated bed nets (IBNs), apply insect repellent with DEET on exposed skin, spray homes at nightfall and keep them closed where possible.
The Vector Control Unit of the Georgetown City Council began taking action to combat the problem with an anti-mosquito campaign starting March 15.
Then in May, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran of the Ministry of Health had a meeting with the Regional Health Committee of Region Six to discuss the matter. While admonishing the Committee to work with the Regional Democratic Council and the municipality to find a way to deal with the problem, Dr. Ramsaran reassured them that fogging was planned for Region Six to bring relief to the community.
Additionally, Professor Pamira Ventosilla, a vector control specialist from the University of Peru, was contracted by the Ministry of Health to help them tackle mosquito larvae using the bacteria, bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti).
However, the ministry official reiterated that it is imperative as always for all residents to adhere to the basic rules of sanitation and in so doing to properly dispose of their refuse in the manner prescribed by the municipality.
The Mayor of the Georgetown City Council, Hamilton Green and Chief Inspector of the Vector Control Unit, Karanchand Krishnalall, echoed these sentiments with a call to the public to do their part in getting rid of mosquitoes breeding grounds by not leaving containers of water in their yards, and cleaning drains to keep the water flowing.
As for the mosquito situation in Berbice, Lall revealed that it was finally under control and that there was nothing to be alarmed about.
Meanwhile, the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown were gearing up to recommence fogging in early June with a proposed end date on June 15.
More here…
Trinidad and Tobago
After a decline in 2009 that followed the 2008 Dengue outbreak, one of the worst Trinidad & Tobago ever went through, the Dengue numbers were once again on the up. At the half-year mark, 242 persons had already been hospitalised. Compared to the 1,295 hospitalizations in 2008 and 1,266 in 2009, T&T could well be on course to contain this year’s outbreak.
The Ministry has refined its Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme, an inter-sectoral approach promoting prevention and control involving the Ministry of Local Government, Public Health Inspectors and Vector Control Officers.
Source reduction efforts are a part of the plan. As for the mosquitoes hiding inside buildings, 90 former ‘sprayers’ were recalled to help the Insect Vector Control Division with fogging.
The Public Health Inspectorate and Health Education Department were themselves engaged, but at the level of the region’s mosquito reduction and Dengue Fever prevention programme. These agencies were collaborating with the Insect Vector Control Division and the Sangre Grande and Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporations.
The southern and eastern parts of Trinidad were the worst hit, western Trinidad less so.
Meanwhile, Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis accepted a recommendation from Attorney General Anand Ramlogan asking her to appoint an independent medical panel of three to investigate the death of a nineteen year old male from Diamond Village, San Fernando.
Over in Trinidad’s sister island, Tobago, a Dengue Outbreak was declared in the wake of a resurgence in the number of dignosed cases in June following a lull between January and May.
Detection, eradication, spraying and fogging exercises were intensified on the island, resulting in a sizeable reduction in the rate of infestation by the Dengue mosquito.
More here…
_________________________________________________________
Click here for undeveloped FloorBoard stories…
_________________________________________________________
Bahamas
One case of Dengue Fever was picked up in the Bahamas in late March. This case was the first since October 2003 when two Dengue cases were reported and twelve years after the last outbreak of the disease.
Medical alerts were promptly sent to all physicians asking them to be on the lookout for patients with signs and symptoms of Dengue. The Environmental Health Department was also notified.
Speaking to bahamaslocal.com, Minister of Health Dr. Hubert Minnis said that his ministry was not taking this development lightly…
More here…
Cayman Islands
Some two months after tests were submitted to the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) in Trinidad, health officials have now confirmed three suspect cases of dengue fever. The Heath Services Authority said that the results were received late yesterday, 11 March from CAREC showing that three Cayman Islands residents, who became ill in January, did indeed have dengue type 2 and had contracted the virus in the Cayman Islands. However, the Medical Officer of Health has stated that there have been no other cases…
More here…
Brazil
In February of this year, Brazilian sanitary authorities alerted the population to the possibility of a Dengue epidemic breaking out. That alarm was sounded due to concerns over the reappearance of Dengue-1, one of the four strains of the disease, that had not been seen in the country for up to ten years.
To understand the sensitivity of this development, it is important to appreciate that a whole generation of Brazilians, never before exposed to Dengue-1, are by nature susceptible to the Dengue.
As of March 06, 2010, Brazil had reported the highest number of Dengue cases (227, 109) in Latin America. All states in Brazil had reported Dengue.
Elsewhere in South America, Dengue was continuing to take its toll.
More here…
Guyana
Just three months into the year, the Malaria Department of the Guyana Ministry of Health has already conceded that it is losing the battle against the disease. This proclamation was made by Minister of Health Leslie Ramsammy on Saturday, March 20, 2010.
The goal for this year was not to hold the incidence of Malaria steady as was the case in 2009, but to go up one logical step by reducing the incidence of the disease.
Minister Ramsammy blamed the situation on mining camps that have sprung up in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9 and the circulation of antimalarials that do not meet the country’s Malaria guidelines.
Region 10 is not as badly affected yet.
More here…
Guadeloupe
Based on reports from general physicians at sentinel sites during the first week of 2010, the Institut de Veille Sanitaire has come to the conclusion that the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe experienced a dramatic increase in the number of cases of Clinical Dengue in early January 2010.
Using the data gathered from sentinel sites, the IVS estimated the number of cases country-wide as high as 260, a number that, if confirmed, would be well above average.
Whereas the IVS has not been clear about the exact number of Laboratory Confirmed Cases seen in the Department up to that point, what is certain is that 5 (five) persons were hospitalized in the first fortnight of 2010 suffering from complications of Dengue.
Virus circulation – presumably Dengue Virus 1 going by the 2009 trend – is strong throughout Guadeloupe except for the southern windward municipalities and southern and northern Basseterre. This placed Guadeloupe at “Epidemic Risk” for Dengue this quarter. (Sources: promedmail.org, invs.sante.fr)
Updated here…
Over on St. Martin…
Dengue was on the decline in Week 1, 2010 compared to December 2009 when the French Side averaged 130 doctor visits of persons who were on suspicion of having contracted the disease. The 100 cases the physicians saw in Week 1 placed French St. Martin above the epidemic threshold for that time of year.
The Positivity Rate of laboratory confirmations in Week 1 was, at 55%, the high-end of the 40-55% obtained in December ’09. The Cases seemed to be shared between Dengue 1, 2 and 4 like what obtained last year.
No part of French St. Martin was spared since this most recent Dengue event commenced in late November ’09. The greatest concentrations of infections have affected the neighbourhoods spanning Grand Case to Baie Orientale and Concordia.
French St. Martin, like Guadeloupe was in epidemic mode at the end of Week 1, 2010. (Sources: promedmail.org, invs.sante.fr)
Updated here…
Over on St. Barthelemy…
There have been highs and lows from mid-November ’09 onwards. New Dengue numbers were up between November ’09 and the fourth week of December when the Suspected Dengue Cases decreased abruptly. Things took a turn for the worse in the final week of ’09 and has continued on that upward climb since, reaching a total of 40 in Week 1.
The figures for laboratory confirmations over the same time period, November 2009 to January 2010, have mirrored those of the Suspected Dengue: a sharp decline towards the end of 2009 and a gradual rise over the last few days of that year into the January 2010.
Dengue 1 was responsible for practically all the Positive Cases, spread as they were across all of St. Barths.
St. Barths called an epidemic in January 2010. (Sources: promedmail.org, invs.sante.fr)
Updated here…
Over on Martinique…
During the month of January 2010, the monthly tally of 260 estimated consultations for Suspected Cases of Dengue at sentinel sites (where Dengue is actively tracked), remained moderate at levels well below those expected for the period.
By contrast, there was an increase in the number of consultations throughout the Department during the first week of February (01 to 07), up to an estimated 164 visits.
The number of Biologically Confirmed Dengue cases doubled between December 2009 and January 2010. In fact, 107 cases were confirmed in January, as compared to 53 the previous month, thus exceeding the maximum levels expected during the 4 weeks of January.
Updated here…
Over on Guyane (French Guiana)…
The weekly number of cases clinically suggestive of Dengue Fever remained stable during the 1st week of February (S2010-05). For the 6th consecutive week, the number of weekly cases of Suspected Dengue Fevers trended higher than average. The same could be said for Biologically Confirmed Cases for the same period.
It is estimated that 244 persons sought consultations at sentinel sites and other health posts on suspicion of having Dengue during that week for a total of 1485 Clinical Cases since the epidemic began in the last week of December.
The estimate for Suspected Dengue for the entire country during the 1st week of February was 64 cases.
Since the beginning of the epidemic in week S2009-53, nearly 1,500 cases clinically suggestive of Dengue were identified. Serotypes Dengue-1, Dengue-2 and Dengue-4 are co-circulating in Guyane, but more so Dengue 1 and 4.
Overall, the magnitude of the epidemic in Guyane was moderate. (Source: invs.sante.fr)
Updated here…
—————————————————————————————————–
Emboldened by the positive outcomes of the trials of the ProVector mosquito trap in Puerto Rico and the success of the real world use of the product in the Dominican Republic, ProVector LLC is donation thousands of ProVector Flowers to help earthquake ravaged Haiti deal with an impending Dengue threat.
Even before the January 12, 2010 earthquake, Haiti reportedly had the highest incidence of Dengue Fever in the world. In the aftermath of the devastation of the Haitian capital’s infrastructure, the threat of Dengue has grown considerably.
ProVector LLC has taken notice and made a corporate commitment to send 1,500 of their traps to Haiti. The company is banking on the results the ProVector Community Project Program (PVCP).
The hurricane season is not very far away. The rains will come and the people of Haiti will likely still be largely homeless and shelter-less.
The American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) has expressed concern that the damage caused by the January 12 earthquake has created ideal habitats for mosquitoes to lay their eggs. And with the start of the rainy season not too far off, the Haitian population and rescue workers will become increasingly vulnerable to mosquito activity.
More here…
——————————-
CUBA
Cuban investors are poised to begin construction of a US$25 million malaria control factory in Nigeria. The first of its kind in Africa, the investment in the factory is in addition to another US$30 million to be spent on a vector control programme in Rivers State, Nigeria.
The factory, which will be built as a joint undertaking between the Caribbean island and the Rivers State Government, is expected to come on-line in two years’ time.
The Cuban ambassador to Nigeria recently escorted the team of Cuban investors through Rivers State, one with the dubious distinction of having the highest incidence of infant and maternal mortality due to Malaria.
Cuba and Nigeria have entered into this ambitious arrangement on the heels of the Africa South America heads of state and government meeting held in Venezuela earlier.
More here…
——————————-
CAYMAN ISLANDS
The Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) and the Department of Environmental Health of the Cayman Islands have expressed concern that the Dengue cycle for 2010 may have already begun. Three persons were hospitalized in Cayman at least around mid-January (exact dates were not given) “suffering from acute viral infections,” admitted Medical Officer of Health Kiran Kumar.
The MRCU and the DEH and other allied agencies met Wednesday to review Cayman’s preventative mechanisms for dealing with Dengue.
The three Suspected Cases were treated and discharged.
There have been no further reports of Dengue in the Cayman Islands.
More here…
——————————-
Privately held biotechnology company, Hawaii Biotech Inc., has joined in the hunt for a tetravalent Dengue vaccine, one that could protect against the four Dengue viruses that affect human beings. But for Hawaii Biotech, it is one vaccine at a time. So to get started, Biotech has readied itself to begin Phase 1 of a clinical study of its Dengue virus monovalent vaccine.
Healthy volunteer subjects who have been recruited for the study are up for treatment with three doses of the candidate vaccine at the Saint Louis University Center where they will be observed by the researchers for antibody development pointing to the level of effectiveness of the vaccine and for indications of adverse reactions to it. The results will not become available before the fourth quarter of 2010. (Source: biospace.com)
French St. Martin
A ten-year old boy of St. Martin is the first recorded death to Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) on the French side. The Prefecture confirmed that the boy succumbed at the Louis Constant Fleming Hospital on Friday, November 02, 2009.
Yet again, the issue of tyres as prime breeding grounds for the Dengue mosquito has come to the fore.
In the meantime, one family is today mourning the loss of their ten-year old.
More here…
St. Kitts and Nevis
The Environmental Health Department of St. Kitts and Nevis called on residents of the Federation the first week of December to do everything in their power to make it impossible for the Dengue mosquito to find harbourage on their premises.
An announcement aired on national radio, ZIZ, implored everyone to take all necessary measures to ensure that the Aedes aegypti mosquito did not find standing water in which to breed. They were urged further to cover all containers used to store water for household purposes; turn them over or otherwise place or shelter them securely away from the elements in order for them not to catch rain water; or dispose of all unwanted containers in the manner appropriate for their particular communities.
Guyana
Consumer Affairs commentator Eileen Cox has brought into focus the disturbing trend of tyre hoarding in Guyana. People just do not seem to be able to part with their old and worn tyres. Instead of filling them in with dirt to grow flowers or dumping them or, better still, turning them over to the company that shreds them up to be used in road construction, Guyanese throw them into drains and trenches, clogging them up. These behaviours only result in an unwarranted increase in mosquito breeding places, especially on the coast, and an upsurge in adult mosquito infestations…and DENGUE!
Cox notes in her Stabroek News column that Minister of Health, Leslie Ramsammy, has gotten into the act with an appeal to Guyanese to part with their old tyres to curb Dengue Fever in the country.
More here…
——————————-
Martinique
Vector Control professionals like myself were so hopeful, especially in the earlier part of this decade, that the pyrethroid class of insecticides would be the perfect alternative to organophosphates such as Temephos in the control of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Now seeing yet another study deflate those expectations places such a burden on the community at large to be more proactive in managing mosquito breeding at homes and places of work.
Unfortunately, this is a burden homeowners and renters are not prepared to bear, preferring to leave it up to Vector Control agencies whose main recourse are the very insecticides that should be avoided.
And so the struggle to empower private individuals to become more active in preventing Aedes aegypti mosquitoes from colonising and breeding continues. But this struggle is set to become even more protracted as it has always been. The evidence for this lies in the results of a study of insecticide resistance for a population of Aedes mosquitoes found in Martinique.
More here…
___________________
Barbados
A new phenomenon has emerged whereby people are testing positive for the Influenza A (H1N1) virus and Dengue Fever at one and the same time.
A Hanoi meeting of an infectious diseases institute was informed that the World Health Organization (WHO) was made aware of the Barbados situation in which seven persons were confirmed with both H1N1 and Dengue with one death so far.
More here…
——————————-
Jamaica
The Jamaica Ministry of Health, November 03, 2009, launched a surveillance manual as a guide to health care workers involved in the investigation and management of communicable diseases. Developed with the assistance of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the manual was designed to take care of the shortcomings in existing programmes for the monitoring of outbreaks of infectious diseases and to maximise the use of scarce human, material and financial resources in reporting and investigating cases.
Some of the shortcomings among Jamaica’s health care workers were identified.
The launch of the manual in Ocho Rios happened at the same time as the opening of a two-day surveillance workshop in Jamaica There, participants discussed issues surrounding the epidemiology and clinical management of vector-borne diseases in their country.
PAHO Environmental Health Advisor, Dr. Homero Silva, in acknowledging the re-emergence of Dengue and Malaria, told those present at the launch of how great this achievement was for Jamaica.
But they were nevertheless admonished that although data collection and reporting should improve, it is even more critical to produce accurate and reliable information.
More here…
——————————-
Hispaniola
President Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic and Haitian President Rene Preval are being pitched the idea of eliminating Malaria from within their borders by 2020.
Former President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, visited with Presidents Fernandez and Preval separately in Santo Domingo and Port-au-Prince in early October to try to persuade them to take up the tab for the US$250 million non-profit Carter Center pilot project, which is credited with curbing the spread of Malaria and Lymphatic Filariasis in the two countries’ border towns. Up to 30,000 Dominicans and Haitians are afflicted with Malaria every year; thousands more are stricken with the disfiguring disease Filariasis.
The Carter Center coordinates the distribution of chemically impregnated bed nets to people, motorbikes for field workers to more easily get around to test and treat patients and microscopes that technicians can use to do their lab work. However, all of this could come to an end when funding for the Carter Center project runs out in April 2010.
President Fernandez and President Preval will meet again in November to discuss the project further
More here…
——————————-
Belize
Yet another head of state from the wider Caribbean has been smitten by Dengue Fever. Now, guess who it is? Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow.
PM Barrow‘s office confirmed this in a brief statement issued on Tuesday, September 29 2009.
More here…
——————————-
Puerto Rico
The AH1Ni (Swine Flu) has, in the past year, been receiving a considerable amount of attention from Caribbean health authorities, seemingly to the detriment of the more longstanding Dengue problem in the region.
Puerto Rico based blogger Adrianna has taken note of this. She made the following comment to that effect on September 5, 2009 on her blog Observations from the ‘Island of Enchantment.‘
PR Senator Luis Daniel Muniz took notice of this discrepancy too when reviewing the Dengue statistics up to the end of August. For him, 150 new Suspected Dengue Cases and 3,256 total, demanded action.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, confirmed one Dengue death in April.There is also an unconfirmed press report of the death of a nine-year old from the same general area.
——————————-
Trinidad and Tobago
The National Surveillance Unit of the Trinidad Health Ministry has revealed in an official press release that there was a “steady decline” in Suspected Dengue Cases by month in Trinidad and Tobago between February and July.
The NSU release, late August, stated that February 2009 saw 266 Suspected Cases making it the heaviest month to date.The low level of Dengue activity has not dulled Trinidad’s Insect Vector Control, the country’s regional corporations and the ministry led inter-sectoral committee’s “Source Reduction” mantra urging Trinidadians to eliminate mosquito breeding places.
And of course, the authorities could not stress more how important it is for persons showing the classic signs and symptoms of Dengue to visit a physician without delay.
More here…
——————————-
Guatemala
The confirmation by health authorities in early August of the death of two people from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in the Caribbean Sea province of Izabal, brings to at least 10 the number of deaths to Dengue this year. This figure is derived partly from a report by an opposition party Congressman, representing Izabal, that eight children from his district had died from DHF.
The Congressman’s numbers are, however, somewhat at odds with those of the Health Minister Celso Cerezo.
More here…
——————————-
The MMA (Mosquito Attractant) trap, now under development at the University of Malaya, has taken one more giant step forward with the field testing of the product among a closed circle on the ground there. The results have been encouraging enough to inspire the expansion of the testing phase into new geographic territories.
A final decision on this has not yet been handed down. Trapper updates the WEC on the progress of the mosquito attractant project with a comment and a rough cut video.
Chan Chooi Mun is one of the product testers and provides an account of his experience in using the MMA Mosquito Attractants. He tested a trap he borrowed from a friend of his who studies at the University of Malaya (UM).
More here…
_____________________
The sanofi-aventis group is at it again. The Group’s vaccine division, Sanofi Pasteur, has invested 350 million euros in a state-of-the-art facility to be built in the Southeast of France over the next four years. This new addition to the company’s global vaccines industrial network is expected to complete the development of Sanofi‘s novel vaccine against Dengue, now in development. 100 million doses of the vaccine will come out of there.
And so the race to be the first to market an effective Dengue vaccine that can act against all four Dengue viruses continues.The urgency for such a vaccine could not possibly be overstated. Some 230 million infections of Dengue occur worldwide every year.The situation could worsen still, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC has identified the key Contributing Factors to Dengue transmission: urbanization, lack of effective mosquito control, poor public health infrastructure, global climate change and increased air travel by possibly infected individuals.
More here…
________________
Belize
July 29
The Cayo District of Belize is the latest locale to come under attack at the hands of the dreadful mosquito-borne illness, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF). That was not a surprise to Belize Deputy Director of Health Services, Marjorie Parks.
Now the majority of the 17 most recently diagnosed DHF Cases in Belize come from Cayo. But that may just be the beginning of a telling Dengue outbreak for the Central Medical Laboratory has confirmed 45 new cases. And still, an undisclosed number of tests are yet to be completed.
An awareness campaign has been initiated to inform the people living in the affected area about how to prevent Dengue from spreading further.
More here…
________________
Guyana
A 31 year old Guyanese woman died suddenly at the Georgetown Public Hospital on July 9, 2009 leaving behind a husband and four young children, ages 1 to 10. The cause of death? Dengue Fever with complications due to Leptospirosis. Or was it the other way around?
The woman’s husband told Stabroek news that his wife woke up before dawn on Tuesday, July 07 complaining of an upset stomach. This led to intermittent vomiting for the rest of the day.
She appeared to be doing fine – but for a lingering stomach ache – following her admittance to Georgetown Public on the Wednesday. One day later, she was gone.
More here…
________________
Brazil
July 16, 2009
One year ago, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was in the vice grip of a Dengue Fever outbreak. Fast forward to June 2009 to find that Dengue Cases had dropped a whopping 96 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in the last.
Another Rio, Rio Grande do Norte, has had a similar success story. However, Dengue was on the up in seven other Brazilian states. The outlook at mid-June was much better though in terms of Dengue deaths.
(Source: Dengue Fever Cases Down 50 Percent In Brazil)
More here…
________________
Mosquito Love Dance
Ronald Hoy, professor of neurobiology and behaviour at Cornell and his team participated in a research project to unravel the mystery of the Mosquito Love Dance. Their findings were published in the journal, Science, on January 9, 2009.
The objective of the research was to learn more about the mating ritual of the mosquito with a view to finding new ways of controlling its effectiveness in reproducing offspring. And you know what the outcome of that would be? Fewer mosquitoes would translate to fewer bites; and fewer bites means less Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever.
The results of the research not only debunked the view that female mosquitoes are tone deaf and are lured unwittingly into the mating ritual, and that males are unable to hear frequencies above 1,000 Hz, they concluded that to the contrary the male and female alike can read frequencies twice as high as was once thought, up to 2000 Hz.
Secondly, they gained the understanding that both sexes engage in mutual courtship, but only if the female had not mated within the past twenty-four hours. or is engorged after a blood meal.
More here: Mosquito Love Dance
________________
A new method of predicting Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic epidemics has been placed in the public domain for discussion and analysis. The research that has produced this innovation, one based on climate variations and vegetation greenness, comes out of the Universities of Miami and Costa Rica, with further modelling done for Trinidad in the West Indies.
For this project, lead researcher, Doug Fuller, and his colleagues looked narrowly at sea-surface temperature records and satellite images depicting greenness in Costa Rica. And by correlating these two variables with the incidence of Dengue, Fuller‘s team says they have derived the tools by which to predict future outbreaks, anywhere in the world, with 64% accuracy.
More here…
—————————-
Washington (PAHO)
Dr. Mirta Roses, Director of the Pan American Health Organization, (has) called on all countries in the Americas to increase their efforts and work together in the fight against dengue, which has broken out in almost every country in the Region.
Serious dengue outbreaks in Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and significant numbers of cases in other countries should put the entire Region on alert, said Dr. Roses.
The only way to prevent dengue transmission is to combat the disease-carrying mosquitoes, which breed in small pools of water around homes.
Dr. Roses said public awareness and community participation play a key role in fighting dengue.
So far in 2009, countries reported 113,758 cases of dengue, including 2,052 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue with complications, and 42 deaths (at the end of March). Last year, countries reported 850,769 cases, including more than 38,000 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever and 584 deaths. (These numbers have risen to 289,754 cases, including 4,238 cases of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, and 97 deaths at April 22, 2009.
More here…
_________________
Antigua and Barbuda/ Puerto Rico
Antigua and Barbuda and Puerto Rico have started off the year with more Dengue than one could have imagined. Chief Environmental Health Officer, Lionel Michael, told the Antigua Sunnewspaper in January that 38 Classic Dengue Cases were scattered around the country. No deaths were reported there. And in PR, it was revealed in mid-April that there were 373 more Dengue cases than last year. PR had over 1,ooo Cases (and counting).
Antigua CEHO Michael and PR Governor Luis Fortuno both implored their compatriots to be more cooperative with them by not keeping containers with standing water in and around their homes and businesses and to clean up their properties regularly. We say once a week.
Michael, obviously concerned about the level of mosquito breeding in Antigua, which he put down to negligence, and wanting to reduce the frequency of fogging, was adamant that “people really need to get involved.” He stressed that “the government alone cannot control (the mosquitoes)…We can’t be at your home 24 hours (a day),” he continued. PR Gov. Fortunowas on the same page. His government launched a nationwide public awareness campaign to discourage people from hoarding used tires in particular and to motivate them to pay increased attention to basic sanitation.
Only Aruba, French Guiana and Guyana in the Non-Hispanic Caribbean region have described Outbreaks so far in 2009.
More here…
Further afield in the Americas, outbreaks have been reported in Argentina, Bolivia and in Bahai, Brazil.
Brazil topped the Clinical infections list with a tally of 126,139 Cases. Of that number 603 persons suffered from the complications of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever/Dengue Shock Syndrome. 23 of these DHF/DSS Cases resulted in death.
All things considered, this is undoubtedly Bolivia’s worst outbreak in decades, one that has spread to Argentina where the size of the event in terms of the number of Laboratory Confirmed Cases (12,544) and geographic spread is at a ten-year high. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the DHF/DSS complications (3) and deaths (2) were minimal in Argentina, when compared to what obtained in Bolivia, this event still eclipsed the 1998 Argentina epidemic in magnitude. And Argentina’s records were only at Week 14.
On the second tier of nations with Dengue were Paraguay, Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Peru. Closer home in the Caribbean basin, Aruba was way out front with 2,652 Clinical Cases, followed by French Guiana (807), Suriname (241) and Guyana (103) for countries with more than a hundred Clinical Cases. By the way, French Guiana and Guyana had Confirmed all of their Cases whereas Aruba seemed have had a policy of not bothering to Confirm diagnoses, something I would not support unless the numbers would overwhelm the countries’ laboratories.The other Caribbean countries with in-country Dengue were French St. Martin (68), St. Barths (46), Martinique (15), Guadeloupe (13), Jamaica (10), Grenada (6), St. Lucia (5), St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago (3 each), and St. Kitts and Nevis (1). Barbados had 17 Cases, but all were introduced into the country.
Let us hold the thought on the British Virgin Islands regarding the totals for 2008, and 2009 to date for they will hopefully be finalised on Thursday, April 23, 2009.
More here…
Guyana
On March 4th, Hedge Funds vs. Malaria and Africa Fighting Malaria hosted a Health Summit in New York City. The event consisted of a series of high-level panel discussions on malaria and other serious public health problems affecting poor countries.We still need 9 more organizations to sign on as Founding Partners before we can officially launch the March of Washingtons – we need your help.
More here…
__________________
Trinidad and Tobago
Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI) Dr. Dave Chadee has, in conjunction with Tulane University, Louisiana, landed a US$1.5 million grant to study the spread of Dengue Fever. The money came from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which already donates millions to Malaria research.
The specific objectives of the research project that Chadee and Tulane will mount in Dr. Chadee‘s native Trinidad, in Peru and South Asia are to find a way to reduce the incidence of Dengue by curbing the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the vector of the disease.
Dr. Chadee has already developed a special trap called ALOT (Attractant-Bait Lethal Ovitrap) that has the capability of collecting the eggs of the mosquito and killing the adults as they lay.
More here…
______________
Marine sponge solution to treat Cerebral Malaria and cancer
by Marlene Moura; excerpted and adapted from a Google Translation by Israel
The technology platform for high-speed screening developed by the bio-pharmaceutical company Bioalvo has allowed for the identification of a natural extract obtained from a sponge (Erylus sp) that has the potential to treat Cerebral Malaria and cancer. The sponge was found 40 meters deep in the Gorringe Bank by Portuguese researchers. The Gorringe Bank is an area located on the Atlantic Ocean 120 miles west-southwest of Cabo de San Vicente.
As part of a collaboration with the Portuguese Institute of Malacologia (IPM), Bioalvo looked at natural extracts from various marine creatures typical of the Portuguese coast. The use of GPS technology D2 in its application,Blockade (one of the technology platforms), allowed for the identification of compounds capable of inhibiting the enzyme indolamina 2.3 desoxigenase(IDOC).Blockade was employed to screen for protein compounds with pharmaceutical potential in the fight against several diseases, among them Cerebral Malaria and cancer. More here…
____________
Trinidad and Tobago
There was a stir in Trinidad (not Tobago) in January 2009 that with an increase in the jungle cycle of Yellow Fever and the intersection of forested areas with the urban environment due to the activities of hunters and hikers, that this would lead to human infections. The reason for this scare was a report from the Trinidad Ministry of Health of the deaths of two wild monkeys from Yellow Fever. Other monkeys have been found dead, but the cause has not been established.
This prompted the 10 percent of Trinidadians at home not yet vaccinated against the disease to pour into health centres around the country to get themselves needled. However, an apparent shortage of the vaccine resulted in some persons being turned away either because the centres were all out of the vaccine or that supplies were being reserved for babies and licensed hunters.
More here…
Puerto Rico
Unconfirmed reports are that Health officials in Puerto Rico issued a warning on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 of an imminent Dengue epidemic in PR.
The story, attributed to head epidemiologist Enid Garcia Rivera, is that already there have been 7 Suspected deaths from the disease and more than 3,200 Suspected Dengue cases since January.
Most of the Confirmed Cases of the mosquito-borne illness have occurred in Puerto Rico’s urban areas. Health officials have launched a public awareness campaign to encourage residents to become more proactive and to get rid of stagnant water, the potential breeding ground of the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
The infections have been relatively mild though. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are running tests to substantiate if the Suspected deaths in Puerto Rico are in fact Dengue related. The Coalition is making every effort to corroborate this story. (last scan on March 16, 2009)
Guyana yet again
Reliable sources have now confirmed that a female who was thought to have died from Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever on February 11, 2009 in the Republic of Guyana was a 28 year old Chinese national who was living and working in the country.
The young lady was the victim of several misdiagnoses by a number of private clinics where she had sought medical care. Initially, it was not clear as to whether she had entered Guyana with a mild Dengue infection. However, investigations have revealed that she had not traveled since December, 2006. Consequently, she must have contracted the disease locally.
Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy must have had that death in mind when he told a press conference on Friday, February 20 that “…as of right now Guyana is under a serious threat so we cannot act as if it is business as usual.”
More here…
Cayman Islands and Curacao
The Dutch and the British engaged in a new kind of relationship in January, namely the trade in Dengue. That trade resulted in the importation of Dengue from the Dutch protectorate of Curacao into the Cayman Islands.
The Cayman Islands’ Public Health Departmenthas confirmed through the country’s Government Information Service (GIS) that the first case of Dengue since January 2008 was hospitalised there upon returning from a visit to Curacao. The patient has since been treated and released and is no longer infectious for the disease.
More here…
Guyana, again
President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo dropped out of sight one week ago, cancelling all of his engagements including one with an international media outlet. We now know the reason why. The President has been dropped by the Dengue virus.
President Jagdeo is only the latest of a string of Caribbean political leaders who have contracted Dengue in the past few months. The President is suffering with a serious bout of Dengue, that is for sure. What is not yet clear is whether he brought the bug home from a recent official trip abroad. However, he remains in stable condition at his official residence.
Prior to the sickening of the President, the Guyana Ministry of Health had been reluctant to declare a Dengue Outbreak. Now, with the death of a female in the last fortnight to add to the President’s bout with the disease, the Ministry seems to be ready to do just that.
More here…
Guyana
First it was Suriname, now it is Guyana. I wonder whether this is a case of the health tzars in these countries downplaying their Dengue events – events that are sickening and hospitalising their people – by not acknowledging that their nations are in Outbreak mode. The Berbice area of Guyana that borders Suriname is under heavy surveillance.
Outbreak or not, the Guyana Ministry of Health has not succeeded in reversing the number of recorded Dengue cases for the first five weeks of 2009 over the same period one year ago.
More here…
Barbados and Guyana
The Caribbean island of Barbados has had a long-running battle with Leptospirosis, a disease that humans contract through contact with the leptospirochaete bacteria found in infected urine or bodies of water contaminated with the urine of rats, mice, pigs, horses, cattle and dogs.
Senior Medical Officer of Health, Karen Springer, sounded the call to the Barbadian public that Lepto is on the march again. She said that the Ministry of Health saw a significant increase in the number of persons infected with the disease in the fourth quarter of 2008.
More here…
———————————-
Bolivia
The Bolivian Ministry of Health and others sources in the capital La Paz have identified the eastern provinces of Pando and El Bani in the Amazon Region as the center of an increase in Dengue Fever infections. The Ministry of Health, on Saturday, January 03 2009 said that there were more than 550 Classic Dengue (450 in Pando and another 100 in El Bani) and 4 Dengue Hemorrhagic Cases in the month of December.
This situation is being blamed on heavy rains and floods in the Amazon, which has attracted prevention measures to stop the spread of the disease.Bolivia had 1,400 Dengue Cases in 2007. (Source: crienglish.com)
———————————-
Dominican Republic
The year 2008 ended with the death of six to seven more people from Dengue Fever in the DR. And that was just in the last fortnight of the year.
More here…
———————————–
Jamaica
updated on December 28, 2008
The Jamaica Government has expressed satisfaction with the results of initiatives taken by sector stakeholders and other interests such as the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to reduce the prevalence of Malaria, Dengue Fever and Leptospirosis in that country.
This pronouncement was made by Health and Environment Minister Rudyard Spencer while addressing the PAHO/CFNI (Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute) staff awards luncheon in Kingston on Thursday, December 04, 2008.
More here…
————————————
Global temperature rise could increase Dengue transmission
It should no longer be news that Dengue Fever is spreading more rapidly than ever before in the region and that there is a very good chance that the number of infections for 2008 will top the record set a year ago for the Caribbean and the rest of the Americas. The reason for this is not so clear. Or is it?
Not to diminish the role that human beings play in enabling the Dengue mosquito to thrive, it would, however, be true to say that scientific evidence is mounting on the side of climate change as the best explanation for this phenomenon.
More here…
_________________
Dengue Fever Expands in Dominican Republic
translated, adapted and edited from Prensa Latina Spanglish, December 02, 2008
The magnitude of the spread of Dengue fever in the Dominican Republic is greater than what the authorities are willing to admit, that the number of persons infected with Dengue increased to nearly 5,000 by Sunday, November 30.In the course of this year, nearly 100 people have died, while other illnesses like leptospirosis, tetanus and viral meningitis are on the increase.It is more of an epidemic than an outbreak, the sanitary authorities are saying.
More here…
———————
Virgin Islands (US)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday, November 19 that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as requested, had deployed a team of entomologists to the US territory to collect data on mosquito populations with a view to preempting an outbreak of Dengue there.
FEMA made this request of the CDC’s Dengue Branch in San Juan, Puerto Rico after discussions with USVI Health Department officials whose concerns were that the heavy rains from Hurricane Omar might result in an extraordinary increase in the abundance of mosquitoes, especially the ones that carries Dengue.
More here…
——————-
Guyana
Dengue Fever has put down scores of residents mainly from the hinterland communities of Lethem and Annai in the Rupununi area of Region 9. Caribbean Net News, citing the Guyana Chronicle, numbers the Suspected Dengue Cases at 126.
Another 45 fever sufferers have been identified but have not been diagnosed with Dengue as yet.
More here…
———————-
British Virgin Islands
The following article was first published in the BVI Limin’ Times on November 13, 2008 in a column called ‘Island Life.’ It is republished here in full. But while this piece is acceptable as a valid impression on the part of the writer, there are some misconceptions and inaccuracies that will later be addressed by the Coalition. Ok! Here’s a hint. The passages highlighted in blue are the points of contention. Not a big deal, right? Right!
Battling the Wildlife
Claudia Colli
The BVI is generally a benign place. I visited Costa Rica last year and was impressed with the amount and toxicity of the snake population there. On Tortola, our snakes are small, dull in pattern and non-toxic. We have scorpions here, but unlike the ones in James Bond movies, they are not lethal, and the same is true of our spiders. It seems, that the BVI’s most dangerous form of wildlife these days is the mosquito. And it’s not because they are particularly poisonous, although if you are bitten by the Aedes aegypti, which carries dengue, you can get very sick…no, it’s their sheer numbers. With all the rain that we have had recently, mosquitoes have become a fact of life.
——————–
St. Maarten
update 2 on Monday, November 10, 2008
In the final days of October, St. Maarten’s Dengue Action Response Team (DART) predicted that the number of Dengue cases would surpass 100 by October month-end. At the time, the data for the first half of the month had just been released. The Dengue toll was then at 72, 14 more than the total for the entire month of September.
The final frame of October’s Dengue picture has now been shot and processed and what it shows is that the worst fears of the DART have been realised. More here…
________________________
The St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Health (MoH) is afraid that there is growing evidence that Dengue has reached the shores of the twin-island federation. Medical practitioners have reported an increase in the number of persons presenting to them with the classic signs and symptoms of Dengue. Blood specimens from some of these cases have been forwarded to the Caribbean Epidemiology Center’s laboratory in Trinidad for confirmatory testing.
The MoH is, therefore, warning residents of St. Kitts and Nevis who are suffering with a fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes and bleeding to seek medical attention without delay.
More here…
________________________
update 1 on October 22, 2008
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made a grant of US$4.8M to The University of North Carolina Vaccine Institute at Chapel Hill to create and test a host of anti-Dengue vaccines. The Institute will pare down that list to the best prospects, which will then be forwarded to the University of Puerto Rico’s Medical Sciences Campus for further testing. The researchers will be pushing for either a monovalent (targeting one Dengue virus) or tetravalent (targeting all four serotypes) vaccine during the testing phase to be undertaken at Puerto Rico.
Monovalent vaccines are limited in scope when taken in the context that a patient who becomes infected with one virus type is somehow placed at a greater risk of developing hemorrhagic complications if infected with any one of the other three viruses. Why that is so is not yet fully understood.
Laura White, Ph.D., research assistant professor in microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine and a member of the institute, is hoping that their research comes up with at least a monovalent vaccine.
More here…
———————
New EU Pesticide Regulations Will Increase Disease
October 09, 2008
CONTACT:Richard Tren (USA)Director, Africa Fighting Malaria +1 202 420 1837 / +1 202 223 3298+44 794 653 2528 (UK)rtren@fightingmalaria.org
Dr. Donald Roberts (USA) Professor Emeritus of Tropical Medicine, Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences.+1 540 862 2998 / +1 301 509 5472droberts@usuhs.mil
Caroline Boin (UK)
Environment Programme Director, International Policy Network
+44 20 7836 0750
caroline@policynetwork.netWashington, DC – Today 160 senior scientists from around the world release a petition against proposed EU pesticide regulations which they believe would shrink the global insecticide markets, leaving millions of people in poor countries at an increased risk of malaria and other insect-borne diseases. The letter of petition is signed by eminent scientists such as Sir David King, former Senior Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, and Sir Richard Feachem, former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
It demands that the EU measure the likely impacts of the regulation, and revise the proposals. If the current regulations were to be enacted, the market and supply of effective insecticides would shrink, resulting in price hikes for public health insecticides. More here…
———————-
St. Maarten/St. Martin/St. Barths/Saba
Original Post on October 08, 2008; update 2 on October 12
To put it bluntly, the Dengue situation on St. Maarten/St. Martin, St. Barths and Saba is growing worse and worse. It could not get any more worse though, now that a 54 year old male of St. Maarten has died from complications of Dengue Fever. And the only reason he died, says Sector Health Care, is because he failed to seek medical care in a timely fashion.
This is the first death attributed to Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever on St. Maarten for some time. The number of Dengue infections on record overall may appear to be small, but looking at the percentages, St. Maarten labs confirmed 200% more cases in August than in July. Comparatively, there was a 400% percent increase from August to the third week of September. More here…
__________________________
The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis
October 06, 2008
Residents of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis are being asked to be gravely aware of the Dengue situation in Guyana and Trinidad and to take all necessary preventive measures to reduce their risk of contracting the disease.
In a release published on SKN Vibes and other media, the Chief Medical Officer has admonished those who have reason to travel to and from these affected countries to be so guided. For their part, the Environmental Health Departments in both St. Kitts and Nevis have attached the highest priority to prevention and surveillance at this critical time. Their advice would be to carry out the following preventive measures:
-
Empty and Destroy all containers that can collect water. This is the most effective way of stopping Dengue. Pay particular attention to discarded tyres, coconut shells, cans, and flower pots.
-
If necessary, apply insect repellent to the body but only after carefully reading the instructions on the label.
-
Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants during the day.
-
Other effective measures are mosquito nets and window/door screens.
______________________
Dengue viruses blocked
Once upon a time, mosquito control was limited to searching for and destroying the insect pest to halt the spread of the disease. Researchers have nevertheless been seeking ways to improve upon this labour intensive and costly method of combating Dengue Fever, which accounts for 50 million infections each and every year. Between 1% and 5% of those who become afflicted by the Dengue virus perish.
The overall body of knowledge that scientists are amassing is geared towards a more profound understanding of how the Dengue viruses attack the human body. This goes way beyond the basics of how the viruses are transmitted to humans by the mosquito and the signs and symptoms that are manifest when a person succumbs to the illness.
In recent years, significant gains have been made in the formulation of safe and effective vaccines. Clinical trials are currently being undertaken by various research teams around the world. Yet still, it will be several more years (probably no less than five in the best case scenario) before any drugs are approved for widespread use and are put on the open market.
With the advent of genetic engineering, scientists are attempting to modify the genetic structure of the pests in order to render them infertile in which case the species would self-destruct.
More here…Source: http://food.blogvis.com
__________________________
Guyana
September 25, 2008
Guyana has seen a record number of Dengue Cases so far for 2008. A record indeed. The 300 Cases diagnosed makes this the worst in ten years.
This situation is in light of the increased surveillance, reporting, diagnosis and testing that Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy has overseen over the past twelve months. Thus, the Coalition is of the view that the system has worked and that Dengue Cases that might have otherwise gone unreported are now being caught early.
The new surveillance protocols now in effect are spearheaded by a Special Surveillance Officer and a team of specialists whose assignment it is to coordinate Dengue interventions in Guyana. That team is the final destination for daily Dengue reports submitted by allied health and private institutions. The data they receive are analysed daily and a report forwarded to the minister and the Chief Medical Officer.
The ministry has also mandated that all Dengue cases be laboratory confirmed. Additionally, public and private sector practitioners have been issued treatment guidelines to ensure that a basic standard is achieved across the board.
Of course, Vector Control has a role to play in this.
More here…
________________________
Trinidad and Tobago
September 20, 2008
The Dengue Outbreak in Trinidad and Tobago is on a sharp upward climb. Infections have skyrocketed and the death toll has tripled since the last Woodshed update in late August.
In just the last three and a half weeks alone, 5 more Dengue victims have been buried in Trinidad. That is in addition to the 2 deaths that occurred in June and July respectively. Also, 160 new Dengue confirmations – not diagnoses mind you – have been made.
Some of the hardest hit areas are Rio Claro and Mayaro districts (48 Confirmed Cases), Penal and Debe (25 Confirmed Cases) and La Romaine, all in South Trinidad.2 of the four most recent deaths are Mayaro residents. The other 2 are from Penal and Princes Town. Interestingly enough, the Penal victim was five months pregnant at the time of her death three weeks ago at the San Fernando General Hospital.
More here…
———————
Dutch St. Maarten
September 16, 2008
It is indeed startling that St. Maarten (Dutch) records about two Dengue cases a month. It is even more disturbing to learn from the St. Maarten Sector Health Care Affairs (SHCA) Dengue Action Response Team (DART) that there were six laboratory confirmed cases of Dengue for the month of August alone.
Roddy Heyliger of sxmislandtime.com reports.
—————–
Repellents stink, which is why mosquitoes slink…from you
- The long-held, well-researched view that human beings (and animals too) emit such pungent odours and carry such obsessively aromatic fragrances that we literally make ourselves succulent to mosquitoes has stood up well to the test of time and numerous laboratory tests.
Not so sound any more is the theory that repellents have this magical chemical constituency that stops the skeeters in their tracks and saves us from the stinging, itching and the disgusting diseases they transmit, like Dengue and Malaria.
Researchers have studied the effects of some of the chemicals we bear on the mosquitoes who dare.
More here…
____________________
Trinidad and Tobago
Originally published on August 30, 2008; Last updated on September 08, 2008
- Two people have died from complications of Dengue Fever in Trinidad and Tobago this year, both of them on mainland Trinidad. One Suspected Dengue death, which occurred on Tobago, was being actively investigated. This was the news coming out of the republic at the beginning of the month. Trinidad and Tobago’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Anton Cumberbatch acknowledged that the two deaths had occurred on Trinidad – one in June, the other in July – while speaking at an Inter Sector Forum on Dengue held in Port of Spain, Trinidad on Tuesday, August 26. He also divulged that in addition to the deaths, there were 120 Confirmed and 968 Suspected Cases of Dengue in the country.
A few days later, Acting Hospital Director of the Scarborough (Tobago) Regional Hospital Dr. Victor Wheeler confirmed to Tobago News that a father of six was suspected of having died from Dengue at that hospital on Monday, August 25, 2008. Visiting Pathologist Dr. Chunilal Ramjit was scheduled to perform an autopsy of the man at the hospital on Thursday, August 28 to confirm whether the cause of death was due to Dengue as the family was told anonymously by a doctor who works there.
In the mean time, blood samples pulled from the victim and four other Tobagonians, three males (an adult from Plymouth and a teenager from Les Coteaux; the address of the third male was not revealed) and one female, were sent to the government’s laboratory on Trinidad for testing. The results are expected back in a week’s time.
____________________
Dominican Republic
Originally published, August 21Updated, August 22
- As luck would have it, newly sworn in DR Vice President Rafael Albuquerque was hospitalised Sunday with Dengue Fever, one day after his swearing-in ceremony. The acute viral infection that put him down had led to a fever and a low platelet count, his doctors said Monday. Albuquerque was showing no signs and symptoms of the potentially life-threatening Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever.
Initial reports about Albuquerque’s illness gave the impression that he was to have been released from the Corazones Unidos clinic on Thursday, August 21. However, a statement issued by the clinic on Thursday, by not specifying a date when Albuquerque will be released, fuelled speculation that he will remain hospitalised for a while long.
The statement does reveal that Albuquerque is recovering well and that he is in a stable condition, without fever.
____________________
Trinidad
Update 2 on August 21
- Anecdotal reports gathered by Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday from residents of Biche, Poole Village and Plum Mitan in East Trinidad have painted a disturbing picture of Classic Dengue, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and even DHF induced coma in that part of the country. And the commenters are not satisfied with either the treatment offered at the Regional Corporation’s Sangre Grande hospital or the level of attention given to the situation by the health authorities.“My mother was warded at hospital since Thursday with high fever and bleeding from the mouth,” lamented Rajendra Rampaul. He told Newsday that he too had been to hospital several times only to be sent home each time with nothing more than an “injection.” In the end he and his mother resorted to a private laboratory that confirmed that they both had Dengue. “People are bleeding through their mouths,” echoed Gulcharan Mahadeo.
More here…
__________________________
Guyana
August 15, 2008- Carifesta, the Caribbean’s foremost arts festival, is being held in the South American/Caribbean nation of Guyana this summer. It goes without saying that the country has to be prepared for a massive influx of visitors from within and without the Caribbean region. In this regard, the authorities are mindful that they have a solemn responsibility to protect the health and well being of their visitors. So they have developed an extensive plan to provide for the health care needs of patrons on a 24-hour basis at the large venues and other strategic locations where Carifesta X events will be held.
More here…
_________________________
Dominican Republic
August 13, 2008
- With the death of 37 persons over the first six months of this year, the Dengue Fever toll in the DR was just off the average mortality rate for the classic form of the disease at the end of July. 3, 562 cases of Classic Dengue were seen by local health authorities, DR newspaper reports have said.
However, the DR seemed to have balked the normal trend the world over wherein only 1 out of 10 persons with signs and symptoms of the disease actually present themselves for treatment, preferring either to do nothing or otherwise self-medicate at home.
More here…
________________________
Peru
- Epidemiology experts from twelve Latin American countries gathered at the office of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Panama City on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 for a conference on sanitary monitoring.
More here…
________________________
Venezuela
- There may be very little Dengue activity in the Caribbean right now. But just on the edge of the archipelago, on the South American mainland, Venezuela is being pummelled by the disease, prompting the health authorities to cease issuing regular Epidemiological Bulletins to the public.
However, an unofficial Bulletin for epidemiological week 25 (June 15-21) made its way into the public domain on Saturday, July 05, 2008. This report has revealed that 27, 049 Dengue infections have occurred to date, marking a 17 percent increase over last year’s figure for the same period, January to June. This translates to an average of 1, 082 new Dengue Cases each week and 4, 704 cases monthly.
More here…
_____________________
St. Martin/St. Maarten
updated on July 19, 2008
- Health authorities on French St. Martin put their half of SXM under pre-epidemic alert for Dengue Wednesday, July 16. As reported by smn-news.com, this decision was taken, in the main, to co-opt the population, especially in Orient Bay and Oyster Pond, in the efforts by the Department of Health and Sanitation to control the Dengue mosquito in those communities.
This action became necessary due to the resistance of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito to the adulticides used for fogging and other unspecified control measures designed to stunt the development of the mosquito at the aquatic stages.
More here…
____________________
Cayman Islands
July 11, 2008
- The Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) of the Cayman Islands, the agency responsible for managing disease and pest mosquitoes in the British Dependent Territory, is intensifying efforts to curb and free the islands of mosquito breeding this summer. This is against the backdrop of the significant increase in Dengue infections recorded throughout the Caribbean and Latin America in 2007 and the particular experience of the Cayman Islands following the passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
More here…
___________________
Jamaica
update 2, July 09, 2008
- A seventeen year old girl from New Haven (near Duhaney Park), St. Andrew, Jamaica is the first person to be diagnosed with Malaria in that country since early March 2008. Director of Health Promotion and Protection in the Jamaica Ministry of Health, Dr. Eva Lewis-Fuller, made this revelation on Monday, June 23. Dr. Lewis-Fuller was reported by radiojamaica.com as saying that “Since then, the ministry has gone in to do intense surveillance, both environmental as well as clinical, in an effort to identify breeding (sites) of the anopheles mosquito as well as persons who may be carrying the parasite.”
Health officials have been engaged in surveillance activities in the New Haven community from that weekend on.
More here…
_____________________
Barbados, June 17, 2008
- 90 retired Environmental Health Officers will now be able to keep in close professional contact with each other. This is the main goal of the recently formed Barbados Association of Retired Environmental Health Officers.
Still a practicing EHO, Andrew Jordan is the secretary of the association. Speaking to the Barbados Nation News after a church service held in St. Michael to mark the launch of the association, Jordan noted that although out of active duty, the retired EHO’s still care for the environment sufficiently to want to contribute some more to its preservation.
Francis Ambrose, a 33 year veteran, is one of the retired EHO’s who is on board with the new association.
More here…
——————————————
Puerto Rico, June 16, 2008
- As a rookie Environmental Health Officer many moons ago, my colleagues and I suspected that the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the Dengue mosquito, was already adapting its breeding habits to polluted waters. (The Dengue mosquito prefers clean, clear water).
One of the phenomena that grabbed my attention, quite strange at the time, was that aegypti was being identified in septic tanks. Septic tanks are highly polluted by nature so the question was, “how could that be?”
Over the past decade, my staff and I have documented instances of what we call “Mixed Breeding” in which two or more species of Culicines – to which the Aedes and Culex belong – cohabit the same focus or breeding place.Scientists from the Dengue Branch of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, San Juan, Puerto Rico, sought to find out more.
__________________________
update 2 on June 12
- In 2007, approximately 900,000 persons came down with Dengue in the Americas and the Caribbean. 900,000! We are now at the half way point in 2008 and already more than 540,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease. The prospects do not look good.
The writing was on the wall when, earlier this year, Brazil fell victim to an unprecedented outbreak. The health care system became so overwhelmed at the time that the military set up field hospitals, private clinics were called into action and government toyed with the idea of soliciting countries like Cuba to send in medical professionals to lend a hand.
Some data filtered out during the dog days of the outbreak, but it has become all too clear in recent days that the true picture as regards the number of infections was grossly depressed. The PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) “Figures for 2008” would attest to that.
More here…
______________________
Trinidad & Tobago
June 10, 2008
- A 34 year old woman from Sand Hill Trace, Tabaquite, Trinidad has reportedly died from complications of Dengue Fever. This is the news coming out of the South Bureau of the Trinidad Express last week. The lady was one of a family of eight who were all admitted to the San Fernando General Hospital for treatment on suspicion of having contracted Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF). The seven other family members – four males and three females, ages ranging from 12 to 44 – were released on June 03 after spending up to a week under medical care.
Oddly enough, the hospital authorities have not divulged the cause of death to the family at the center of this. The death certificate issued to them cites the cause of death as unknown. The hospital would only admit that “five family members are suffering with Dengue and two others are Suspect Cases.”
Imtiaz Ahamad, Chairman of the Southwest Regional Health Authority, which overseas San Fernando General, was not available for further comment. Sunita Gopaul, the Communications Manager for the Ministry could not be reached either.More here…
_______________________
Kingston, Jamaica
June 07, 2008
- The Jamaica Ministry of Health has grown increasingly concerned that its Vector Control operators have become too heavily dependent on chemicals in mosquito control. Citing a study, ‘The Threat of Dengue Fever: Assessment of Impacts and Adaptation to Human Health in the Caribbean,’ by the University of the West Indies (UWI, Mona, Jamaica) and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC, Trinidad and Tobago), the ministry pledged to embark upon a “strategic shift” to biological control measures in order to nullify the potentially dangerous effects of these chemical products on human health and the environment.
More here…
_______________________
Georgetown, Guyana
update 4 on June 06, 2008
- Minister of Health Dr. Leslie Ramsammy announced at a press conference on Wednesday, May 28 that nine cases of Dengue were Confirmed in Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo in Region 9. The patients were being closely monitored. Since then three more cases have been Confirmed bringing the total in and around Lethem, close to the Brazil border, to 12 as of May. There were 103 cases of Dengue countrywide at the end of April. No Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever cases have been reported. The Dengue virus type implicated in this Dengue event is Dengue 2.
More here…
_______________________
Marigot, St. Martin, FWI
May 21, 2008
- St. Martin’s health authorities declared in a press conference on Tuesday, May 20, 2008 that the Dengue epidemic that occurred on the half of the island they share with Dutch St. Maarten is over. Briefing the press were Préfet Délégué Dominqie Lacroix, Public Health Inspector Stéphane Barlerin and fourth vice-president Pierre Aliotti.
More…
__________________________
Brazil
April 29, 2008
- The Dengue outbreak of 2002 resulted in a record 91 deaths. That number has now been bettered and threatens to rise much higher still. According to Brazil’s government news agency, Agencia Brazil, the new record high of 92 Dengue fatalities was set in Rio de Janeiro this month. And mark you, this is only April.
More…
______________________
Brazil
April 23, 2008
- Medindia.net has reported that in the past week, there have been twelve more Dengue fatalities in the eastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro to add to the 67 deaths that occurred there in the first quarter. The figure may well be much higher given that another 80 deaths are under investigation as possibly Dengue related. On top of all that, a further 18,000 people have succumbed to the fever.
More…
______________________
Guyana – on High Alert for Dengue
April 20, 2008
- Guyana is seeing a repeat of the circumstances that in 2007 threatened to prosecute a major outbreak of Dengue Fever there. At the start of the month of April, the country had already recorded 103 cases of Dengue, 9 up from the same time a year ago. This comes on the heels of a spike in Classic Dengue cases – and some Hemorrhagic Dengue – across the country two months ago that was not, however, sustained.
It is not clear at this stage as to whether all of this Dengue activity is as a result of the increased sensitivity and suspicion of doctors and the consequent doubling of the amount of testing they have initiated.
Read the full story on the Home page
_______________________
Brazil
April 02, 2008
- The outbreak of Dengue in Brazil is worsening at such a rapid pace, 80 infections every hour according to media reports, that the Brazilian government is taking drastic measures to contain the spread of the disease.
Rio de Janeiro health officials divulged to reporters that federal and state governments have discussed the possibility of activating the army to fight this latest Dengue event that has resulted in over 32,615 Suspected Dengue Cases and claimed about 50 deaths including at least 25 children this year alone. The armed forces will become part of a crisis center to be manned by the federal government and the state of Rio to coordinate Dengue prevention efforts. The specific role of the army would be to erect field hospitals in the city ease the burden on existing public and private medical facilities where emergency rooms and staff have become overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of admittances.
In this regard, government is sending close to 670 health care professionals to Rio to lend a hand. An additional 119 positions have been created, which could take the number of ancillary staff that will eventually take up work there to 300.
Brazil’s Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao also announced that 15 more truck-mount fogging machines are to be put into service to quickly bring down the density of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of Dengue Fever.
_______________________
Brazil
March 27, 2008
- The Seattle Times has reported that a major outbreak of Dengue in Brazil has so far this year claimed at least 47 lives and is sickening the residents of Rio de Janeiro at the rate of 51 persons every hour.
The Pan American Health Organization recorded 31 deaths in Rio in 2007. In all, Brazil suffered 158 deaths last year.
Brazil also has the dubious distinction of producing more than half of the 900,782 cases of Dengue for the Americas on a whole in ’07.
_______________________
Jamaica
March 16, 2008
- Six Jamaican medical technologists underwent five days laboratory training in Leptospirosis detection in February. The Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (Carec), the agency responsible for the training, has turned out 15 technologists since receiving funding in 2005 from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO).
The technologists, taken as they were from the public and private sectors, now have enhanced capabilities in conducting rapid tests for the detection of Leptospirosis during the critical first week of illness.
Leptospirosis has put the Jamaica Ministry of Health on the back foot again, even as the year-long Malaria outbreak, which started in December 2006, is finally being brought under control.
The Jamaica Ministry of Health recorded a 95 per cent increase in Leptospirosis infections in 2007 over the previous year. In all, there were 1, 713 Suspected Cases for that year. 204 of those cases were Confirmed. 24 persons died last year in Jamaica, presumably as a direct result of the disease. The authorities Confirmed 9 of those deaths.
The funds for the training came out of a US$498, 000 grant that the Jamaica Health Ministry received after the passage of Hurricane Dean to prevent outbreaks of vector-borne diseases. The mosquito control and prevention programmes have already benefited 155,000 residents of seven parishes.
The strengthening of the Jamaica’s laboratory diagnostic capacity for Leptospirosis using ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immuno Assay) precedes the establishment of a Leptospirosis testing site at the National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) this month.
_______________________
Guyana
March 12, 2008
- Guyana Minister of Health, Leslie Ramsammy, speaking during the Budget Debate on Wednesday, March 05 in the National Assembly of this South American/Caribbean country disclosed that Vector borne diseases such as Dengue is on the rise. 400 cases of the disease were recorded in 2007.
In that same year, the incidence of Malaria fell by 72.5 per cent from 40,000 in 2006 to 11,000. Minister Ramsammy forecasts that the number of Malaria cases should drop even more this year. He anticipates 8,000 infections in 2008.
The full story is here
_______________________
Jamaica
March 06, 2008
- The Jamaica Ministry of Health has reported that three Jamaican men were diagnosed with Malaria in the past week. This is in addition to two other cases that were recorded in the first two months of this year. Director of Health Promotion and Protection Dr. Eva Lewis-Fuller has assured that Vector Control programmes are ongoing to search for and destroy anopheles breeding sites in the affected community of Christian Pen, St. Catherine.
Malaria reared up in December 2006 after an absence of 40 years. 400 persons, mainly from Kingston and St. Catherine, were victim to the disease through 2007.
More on this story here…
__________________________
Cayman Islands
February 11, 2008
- A Cayman Islands resident who contracted Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever while visiting Jamaica in January, died at a Cayman hospital on his return to the British Dependent Territory, caymanCompass.com has reported. This tragedy, however, was more a case of a person who delayed in seeking medical attention for his condition rather than how morbid the disease is.
More on this story here
_______________________
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
January 27, 2008
- Twelve (12) Chinese workers housed in a labour camp on Frederick Street in Port of Spain have variously been afflicted with Dengue Fever over the last fortnight. About 100 Chinese workers are in Trinidad in the employ of Shanghai Construction Group International Trinidad Ltd. (SCG) to build the Academy of the Arts on Keate Street in PoS.
It is not clear to me how many Chinese were hospitalized and how many of them still remain warded. One report had it that all 12 were hospitalized; but that report did not disclose what number from that cohort had so far been discharged. Another report quoted the Managing Director of the SCG as saying that it was only 6 of the 12 who were hospitalized. Meanwhile the Health Ministry dropped the number of hospitalizations at 11, which could mean that 1 Chinese was discharged. Clearly, some of the Chinese have been discharged. The question is how many. As far as the Trinidad and Tobago Minister of Health Jerry Narace is concerned, all have been. I need time to distill those numbers.
________________________
Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies
January 25, 2008
-The Ministry of Health in Antigua reported on Thursday, January 24, 2008 that the country now has 3 (three) Confirmed Cases of Dengue on record. According to Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr. Oritta Zachariah, there may likely be unconfirmed cases of the disease.
Blood samples have been flown to the region’s premier testing laboratory at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) in Trinidad for serological confirmation and to determine the causative serotype involved. No date was given when the results will become known.
Chief Environmental Health Officer Lionel Michael revealed that two teams of Aedes aegypti Inspectors have been deployed, one in rural areas and the other in urban environs, to conduct regular fumigation in order to knock down the adult Dengue mosquito and door to door inspections for the purpose of involving Antiguans in the fight against the further spread of the disease.
Antigua’s sister island of Barbuda remains unaffected at press time.
_______________________
Barbados, West Indies
January 24, 2008
- The Barbados Vector Control Unit commenced fogging operations on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 in the Parish of St. Michael. Fogging continued on Wednesday 23 in St. Phillip.
Several districts in St. James are being sprayed on Thursday 24. This round of fogging ends on Friday 25 in areas that abut and bound the Parishes of St. Michael and St. James.
There is yet no word on the special circumstances that spurred the authorities to embark on this exercise. One can only speculate that it has something to do with the current Dengue outbreak affecting not only Barbados, but most of the islands of the Caribbean and Latin America.
As is the case in the British Virgin Islands where fogging will be conducted in select communities on Tortola in a few days’ time, the Barbadian public is being advised to keep all windows and doors open during the fogging operations so as to let the aerosol reach all dark recesses where the Aedes aegypti mosquito tends to hide when not active.
Persons with respiratory problems are admonished to protect themselves from inhaling the fog. In the BVI, such individuals are cautioned to remove themselves from the fogging route entirely until the fog settles and the air cleared.
As usual, motorists are expected to slow down and stop if they happen to run into the fog, which is so thick that visibility is reduced to nothing.
The Bajans have gone one step further than we do with our advisory by instructing parents and guardians to prohibit their children from either playing in the fog or running after the fogging machine. The ULV chemicals used by Vector Control, although relatively harmless at low doses – such as obtains in the fleeting moments when a building is enveloped in the fog – can however produce adverse health reactions according to a person’s health condition.
(Source: bajanreporter.com)
______________________________
Road Town, Tortola, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS
January 18, 2008
- The Ministry of Health and Social Development has received confirmation from the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) of three additional cases of Dengue, bringing the total number of Confirmed Cases in the BVI for 2007 to 5.
According to Director of Health Services Dr. Irad Potter, the Ministry of Health logged a total of 33 Suspected Dengue Cases in all of 2007. 19 of those cases proved to be negative for Dengue. However, 8 test results are still pending and 1 has not been tested at all for some reason.
In early December, it was reported here that there were 2 Confirmed Dengue Cases on record in the territory of the BVI. These Confirmed Cases were from a batch of 14 Suspected Cases for whom blood specimens were sent off to Carec in Trinidad and CDC in Puerto Rico for testing. 11 results came back before the end of the year and out of that number, 7 were negative for Dengue.
The Coalition is in the process of factoring in some anecdotal information in order to determine, at least approximately, how many cases may have been missed by the official data collection mechanisms.
More to come…
______________________
January 17, 2008
Mount Salem, St James, JAMAICA
- The Jamaica Observer reports that the deadly Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, a complication of Dengue Fever, claimed the life of a 16-year-old, Shameika Crooks,on the weekend, igniting fears of an outbreak in Mount Salem, a depressed inner-city community.
Crooks, a student of the Caribbean Christian Centre for the deaf, died at the Cornwall Regional Hospital between Friday, January 11 and Saturday, January 12 after all her vital organs collapsed as a result of the viral illness, which is transmitted by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Officials from the St James Health Department, which overseas the area, began deliberations Monday (January 14) on the case, which PNP Councilor for Mount Salem Avery Rose-Green says “…highlights a looming crisis which could have incalculable costs if it goes unresolved.”
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.
Pingback: It’s baack, Dengue in Brazil that is! « Woodshed Environment