Woodshed Environment Coalition

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…

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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…

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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 RicoUnconfirmed 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 againReliable 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 CuracaoThe 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, againPresident 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…
__________________GuyanaFirst 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…———————————- BoliviaThe 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 RepublicThe 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…
———————————–Jamaicaupdated on December 28, 2008The 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…

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Dengue Fever Expands in Dominican Republic

translated, adapted and edited from Prensa Latina Spanglish, December 02, 2008The 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…——————-GuyanaDengue 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 IslandsThe 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. Maartenupdate 2 on Monday, November 10, 2008In 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, 2008The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made a grant of US$4.8M to The University of North Carolina Vaccine Institute at Chapel Hillto 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…
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New EU Pesticide Regulations Will Increase Disease

October 09, 2008CONTACT: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.net Washington, 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/SabaOriginal 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 NevisOctober 06, 2008Residents 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.

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Dengue viruses blockedOnce 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__________________________GuyanaSeptember 25, 2008Guyana 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 TobagoSeptember 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. MaartenSeptember 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.

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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…

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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…

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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…

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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…

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Brazil

April 23, 2008

- Medindia.nethas 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…

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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…

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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

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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.

Read the distilled facts here

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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.

Read the full story

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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)

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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…

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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.”

More to come…