Woodshed Environment Coalition

these are the stories bubbling under the surface…

Developing Stories

Jonathan Kearney and fellow volunteers Stephen and Dan work at the Centro Buen Pastor en Caguas in Puerto Rico. Jon writes a blog to chronicle his work.

Caguas is a 20-25 minute drive south of San Juan into more of a foothills terrain. Over the past few years, a collective effort called Proyecto Siempre Verde (Project Always Green) developed.  The idea of the project is to make the rain forest more of an ecotourism attraction.  A lot has to happen before any of this is realized, though. Jonathan is in the midst of developing trails through the forest.  That was when a bout of Dengue cut him down.  Here is his First Person Account of that experience.

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Approximately one week after Dan acquired the flu, which was going strong on the island, I began to come down with something of my own.  Dan had a fever and chills one night and was very weak/tired for the following few days.

A few days after he began to feel better, I was hit by a ton of bricks.  One weekday night, I was watching the latest episode of the TV show House on my computer when I began to feel sick.  I started the episode feeling great, but once I got to the end and packed up my computer, I could barely stand up.

It was amazing how quickly I went from 100 to 0, so to speak.  We had just cooked a big dinner and I had felt completely healthy.  I also got the chills instantly to a degree I never felt before.  My entire body shook, so much so that my teeth began to hurt from all the chattering.

It is generally about 90 degrees in my apartment, even at night.  Despite the heat, I was freezing.  I became very weak and decided to go to bed early.  I notified my roommates of my bizarre illness, took some Tylenol, threw on a sweatshirt, and hopped under the covers.

I woke up at least 5 times during the evening.  Sometimes I woke up with the same extreme chills; sometimes I woke up drenched in sweat.  My entire bed was soaked with sweat.  I felt too sick to move or do anything about it, so I laid there most of the night.  I knew I had a high fever, but we didn’t have a thermometer to check it.

The next day I woke up with 3 more symptoms.  1.) I had absolutely no appetite.  2.) Every part of my body ached.  It was the feeling of squatting in the weight room for the first time in a long time, except everywhere on my body hurt.  This made it hard to even walk.  3.) The worst part by far was the extreme migraine.  I had trouble looking at light.  Then I had trouble moving my eyes around.  If I looked up, my eyes had a sharp, shooting pain.  I continued to feel this way for another 2-3 days.

We finally got a thermometer, but only after I was feeling somewhat better.  My temperature kept floating between 101.5 and 102 degrees.  I couldn’t believe how much better I felt compared to the first few days and yet my temperature was 102.  What was my temperature that first night? 104?

Eventually, I broke into an unbelievable rash all over my body.  Up until this point a doctor and many others decided I had the flu.  The rash, though, is a Dengue Fever hallmark.

I finally got to a doctor who got some blood work done.  I had Dengue Fever.  My white blood cell count had dropped considerably to under 100,000, and other blood work stats were off their usual levels.  On a side note, the doctor noticed I had huge bites of some sort in my groin region.  Before I could even begin thinking about how that could have happened, he told me that the bites were from small ants.  Outstanding!  The hormiguitas are expanding their borders from the kitchen to my bedroom.  Just last week, I woke up to them crawling all over my face.  Good stuff.

So anyway with Dengue, you can’t really do anything about it.  It’s just like a severe flu with more intense symptoms.  You can attempt to control the symptoms, but that may not be too effective as I found out.  Taking Tylenol made my fever drop a degree or two, but it went right back up after an hour.

The major thing you have to be careful about with Dengue is developing the most severe strain.  About a week after symptoms, your white blood cell count drops more than it already has and you are generally in the hospital for a while.

I don’t know all the technical terms; you can look those up medical crowd.  It’s called Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever.  A Puerto Rican friend of mine had this type of Dengue and it sounds absolutely terrible.  After the major symptoms die down, the full recovery takes at least a few weeks.  I lost 15 pounds and felt pretty weak for a long time.  Writing this about a month later, I finally feel like I am back to full strength.  I’m still down a few pounds, but at least I can start to exercise again.

They’re back… by Freeman Rogers Editor, The BVI Beacon Well, okay, the mosquitoes never really went away.  But they’ve been particularly awful recently, at least in my Road Town apartment. So I’ve decided to fight back.   Freeman Rogers Every morning I get out of bed and grab one of those electric tennis rackets.  Then I sit in my living room and cackle with glee as I take revenge on the insects whose buzzing tormented me throughout night. But that ritual is a little sick.  And, anyway, I’ve swung my electric tennis racket so often I’ve developed tennis elbow. So I thought very hard and developed an ingenious plan. Or so I thought. During the days after I came to the Virgin Islands, I remembered, I seemed to lose several pints of blood to mosquitoes every night.  Then, after a couple weeks, I noticed fewer and fewer bites. When I explained this to other residents, they said, “Oh, yeah, the mosquitoes here like fresh meat.  They like to bite new people.”  I’ve heard this theory several times since. If it were true, I realised, I could offer my living room couch to tourists for free.  Then, all the mosquitoes would bite them and leave me alone. Since this seemed like a pretty big commitment — you can’t always trust a freeloading tourist — I decided to be sure. ‘Fresh meat’ theory So I called Dr. Dave Chadee, a senior lecturer at the University of the West Indies, who has been studying mosquitoes for more than 27 years. When I asked him about the “fresh meat” theory, he laughed. The Trinidad-based scientist had another explanation. …I called Minchington Israel, the programme manager for the Virgin Islands’ Vector Control Programme. To my relief, Mr. Israel assured me that his department’s 10 inspectors are on top of the situation.  They spend their time collecting data on where the next mosquito outbreak might occur and trying to pre-empt it. But the real soldiers in the mosquito war, according to the programme manager, are you and me. More here…

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There is an initiative afoot in Latin America and the Caribbean to tackle the problem of parasitic infectious diseases such as Dengue Fever.  The International Development Bank (IDB) has teamed up with the PAHO (Pan American Health Organization) and the Global Network “to put an end to…preventable and controllable diseases” in our region.  The funds for this initiative have come from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

US2.5M of these monies will be turned over to the IDB by the Global Network and the Sabin Vaccine Institute by signed co-financing agreement.

More here…

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Sanofi Pasteur has taken yet another step forward in the development of its investigational, novel tetravalent Dengue vaccine candidate with advanced clinical studies among children and adults in Singapore and Vietnam.  Part of a global clinical study programme being undertaken in endemic regions in Asia and Latin America, these studies mark the expansion of sanofi-aventis Group’s Asia-Pacific Dengue vaccine programme from Thailand and the Philippines.

Clinical trials have been completed in a mix of non-endemic and endemic countries, namely the United States of America, Mexico and the Philippines.

The initial results show that three doses of the vaccine are sufficient to elicit a balanced immunological response against the four Dengue serotypes.

Sanofi Pasteur is working jointly with Singapore’s Communicable Disease Centre and Vietnam’s Pasteur Institute.

More here…

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CUBA

Two Cuban epidemiologists were in Sri Lanka in mid-August to lend a helping hand to the Health Ministry there in its ongoing tug-o-war with a Dengue outbreak.

The Cuban experts first toured the country to assess the situation and presented the Sri Lanka Public Health Director with a detailed report.

Colombo has pledged to study it before implementing the findings.

More here…

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CAYMAN ISLANDS

There seems to be some truth to the story that spending cuts initiated by the Cayman Islands’ government have affected the operations of the Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU), the agency responsible for mosquito control mosquitoes in the British Dependent Territory.

The first programme to be grounded by the cuts in overtime pay is the MRCU‘s fleet of airplanes.

With the hands of the MRCU having been somewhat tied by what another Cayman News Service report referred to as insolvency in the Cayman economy, MRCU Research Manager Fraser Allen is calling on residents, especially those in the Capital Georgetown and West Bay, to take up the slack.

More here…

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The Origins of Malaria decoded

What if I tell you that the mosquito is really not the source of the very first infection of Malaria?   What if I say that a virus researcher has come to the much studied conclusion that a primate, not the mosquito, is to be implicated in the jump of the Malaria virus to humans, much like HIV virus did twenty or more years ago?  Chicken and the egg you say? You might.   But let me end the conjecture here.

The fact is that virus researcher and hunter, Nathan Wolfe, has had a score to settle with Malaria especially after surviving a third bout with the disease in his ten years of leading expeditions to crack elusive virus codes, if you will, as head of a research institute called Global Viral Forecasting Initiative.

The so-called virus hunter, a microbiologist by profession, says he cracked the riddle in large part through an agreement with the government of Cameroon.

Wolfe published his findings on Monday, August 03, 2009 in the journal, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.   CNN Medical Producer, Stephanie Smith, had a read of it and broke down the science into digestible bits in her article written for Anderson Cooper 360°.

In it, Wolfe claims that his research supports an hypothesis of a single event as conceptualized by noted anthropologist Frank B. Livingstone.

The importance of these findings rests on the premise that the Malaria parasite mutates easily.

How about we let Nathan Wolfe tell his own story?

More here…

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The thinking is that if it were possible to develop a suitable bio-pesticide such as one that unleashes fungal spores that could kill older mosquitoes only, then Malaria could be stopped in its tracks since most mosquitoes would not live long enough to begin transmitting the disease.

As a direct consequence of this, late-acting insecticides would have a much longer useful life as compared to conventional insecticides.

Professor of biology and entomology, Andrew Reed and professor of entomology, Matthew Thomas, both of Penn State and Penelope Lynch, a doctoral student from Open University in England, all make the argument in the April 7 issue of PLos Biology that this can be done very simply by, for example, diluting existing insecticides.

In the case of fungi, the spores would take 10 to 12 days in the three-week lifespan of the mosquito to destroy it.

Studies conducted in Africa and Papua New Guinea have generated data that show that the killing of aging mosquitoes have the potential to reduce biting by up to 95 percent.

More here…

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There are growing fears that Malaria is in resurgence in the Caribbean. Countries in the region have been importing cases since the disease was eradicated most everywhere in the 1960’s, Haiti being the one exception. However, local transmission is now taking place again as seen most recently in the Jamaica outbreak of two years ago and to a lesser extent in the Bahamas before that.

Indeed, the re-emergence of Malaria started in earnest in the 1970’s. To that extent, it is endemic in Guyana, Suriname and Belize today.

In an article published in the West Indian Medical Journal in November 2008, JP Figueroa of the The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus sorts out the positions of Rawlins and others.

Part of this threat comes from the island of Haiti whose people are known to legally migrate to other Caribbean countries in search of economic opportunities.

In responding to this, Figueroa places some of the responsibility at the doorstep of clinicians.

Figueroa, therefore, recommends that more Caribbean countries take the threat of re-emerging Malaria more seriously.

More here…

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Barbados Underground, the blog, has exposed a problem with the sluice gates at Worthing Beach resulting in an infestation of the Malaria mosquito at the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary.

Stuart Heaslet, Sanctuary representative, lamented to The Bajan that since the gates went into disrepair three years ago, it has been impossible to flood the Sanctuary when water levels there are low.

The Sanctuary used to be able to flood and flush the Graeme Hall Ramsar wetland.

Now that the gates are non-functional, the Sanctuary has had to resort to chemical treatment of the wetland to curb mosquito production. In light of the re-emergence of Malaria in the Caribbean, Barbados’ status as a major travel hub for the region and internationally, and the growing resistance of the Malaria parasite to anti-malarials worldwide, this is cause for grave concern.

More here…

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The rainy season seemed to have come early in the Caribbean this year. Dark, overhanging clouds are a constant reminder of that.

But in the region, rainfall is equal to mosquitoes, the Aedes aegypti, the carrier of Dengue Fever. Why? Because we the home-owners and renters continue to ignore the basic rule of self-responsibility regarding mosquito control: to conduct weekly surveys of our premises for uncovered containers (cans, barrels, discarded, tyres, flower pots, ornamental fountains, trash and cisterns etc.) that collect rain water and either get rid of them or the water in them.

In February, Puerto Ricans learned a hard lesson when 350 Dengue cases were recorded there, the largest number of new cases ever.

More here…

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BVI EHD embarks on new educational thrust

Government Information Service

Residents of the Territory can expect to learn more about safer environmental health practices as the Environmental Health Division embarks on a formal strategic education and outreach program.

Chief Environmental Health Officer, Carnel Smith stated that the EHD has significantly transformed its operating system and the public needs to be aware of the new standards that will be promoted and enforced by the Division.

More here...

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Thomas Kollars Jr. PHD, Director, Biodefense and Infectious Disease Laboratory at Georgia Southern University at Statesboro in the United States has come up with a mosquito trap, shaped as a flower and laced with a biological agent known as BTI (Bacillus thuringiensis). The BTIbacteria, known to destroy mosquitoes, is secured in a pad snapped into the center of the plastic device. The pad is shielded with a fine mesh with tiny holes that allow only the mosquitoes’ proboscis or mouthparts (the tube mosquitoes use to suck fluids and blood) through while keeping out non-target species like moths, flies and ants.

Kollars tested the flower trap in Puerto Rico, chosen for its high humidity. His hope was to reduce the mosquito population in and around a simulated ‘village’ in the space of six to seven months. The hillsides surrounding the village were used as controls for the experiment.

ProVector BT, as the trap is called, was installed in each of fourteen tents that recreated an African village.

More here…

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Commonwealth of Dominica

February 09, 2009

A very reliable Woodshed Warrior has informed the WEC that a Dominican child has died after contracting Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF).

No other details are as yet available.

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Ever wondered about the day when you could carry your own personal Dengue or Malaria test kit in your wallet? I guess not! Who would ever think about such a thing? Why, some smart guys at the University of Washington of course. This is not a joke. UW researchers, led by bioengineering professor Paul Yager, have indeed come up with a disposable malaria test card.

This prototype mylar card uses a technology that offers the real possibility of adaptation and application to the so-called “fever panel” of six diseases namely Dengue Fever, influenza, Rickettsial diseases, typhoid and measles. And that is only the beginning says Yager.

The Malaria cards are designed to be read by a fully-automated portable reader, taking into account the issues of portability, automation and ease of storage.

The selling point for the test card is two-fold...

More here…

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There is something happening in Barbados in relation to Dengue. We just cannot put our finger on it as yet. How do we know that? Fogging! A lot of fogging has been done since before the Christmas season. And up until the week ending January 16, the trucks were up and down the neighbourhoods.

What we can report at this time is that huge swaths of Barbados have been fogged, suggesting that there is a serious mosquito problem, and even Dengue, there. An expatriate Barbadian Environmental Health Officer who was visiting home over the Christmas holidays told the WEC that one or the other of the Bajan newspapers even reported on a Dengue death some time late last year. Our checks have not resulted in any independent confirmation of this.

The Barbados Government Information Service issued a press release on January 05, 2009 announcing the resumption of a fogging campaign, which commenced prior to Christmas 2008.

More here…

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updated on December 30, 2008

Health authorities in St. Lucia are lamenting the near doubling of Confirmed Dengue Cases this year over the last.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Josiah Rambally has revealed to the CMC (Caribbean Media Corporation) that there were all of 92 Confirmed Dengue Cases at the end of November, 45 more than for the corresponding eleven-month period of 2007.

Worse still…

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The St. Kitts and Nevis Ministry of Health has put any speculation of a Dengue Outbreak in the Federation to rest with the affirmation that more than two dozen Dengue Fever Cases have been laboratory confirmed by the Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) in Trinidad.

The Ministry’s statement of Wednesday, November 26, 2008, states that blood samples that were sent off to CAREC for laboratory confirmation have returned positive for the mosquito-borne disease.

More here…

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Malathion and Bees

The BBC Morning Report of November 11 has brought to light the concerns of the Association of Caribbean Beekeepers’ Organizations meeting in Guyana (November 09-14) that Malathion, an insecticide used to fog the Dengue mosquito (Aedes aegypti), is killing off bees and harming the honey trade. The organizations’ President, Gladstone Solomon, believes the use of Malathion in mosquito control may be counter productive.

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Antigua and Barbuda

A Mr. Shenstone from Antigua commented thus about Dengue in Antigua and Barbuda, October 28, 2008:

Dengue Fever is rife in Antigua & Barbuda. We have lived here 14 years and aged 48. Recently went down with the Dengue Fever in September 08 (a dry month before the rains). I lost 19 lbs and couldn’t move for three weeks. The Government says no new cases have been disclosed which is Not Correct.

The Antigua Ministry of Health has a responsibility, like all other Ministries in the region, to report all incidences of Dengue to the Caribbean Epidemiological Centre (CAREC) and by extension to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The PAHO database captioned ‘2008: Number of Reported Cases of Dengue & Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF)’ for the Region of the Americas (by country and subregion) up to Epidemiological Week / EW 40 at 29 September 2008, shows that there were 16 cases of Dengue on Antigua up till the end of September. These were all Clinically diagnosed cases.

No numbers have been provided for the diagnoses that have since been Laboratory Confirmed. It would, however, be safe to say that the figures are reposed somewhere because it is known that Dengue 1 is in circulation on the island.

Therefore, if the Ministry of Health did not disclose more up to date information, as Mr. Shenstone intimated, it could be due to one of two things: that the island’s physicians had not yet reported the new cases to the Ministry; or that the data from the physicians and those coming out of the secondary care system were not collated and the results transmitted to CAREC/PAHO.

But clearly, the number of Dengue cases would probably be much higher than 16 by now, the precise factor notwithstanding.

Mr. Shenstone would testify to that. Here is how he models the situation in Antigua:

Mr Dr, a well known local GP, stated that he was seeing 8-9 new cases a week! Think about it for a sec…20 local GP’s x 8 cases / week = 160 wk = 640 / month…!!

The Coalition will keep a tab on Antigua’s reporting to CAREC/PAHO and will update the country’s Dengue numbers here as they become available.

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Tortola, British Virgin Islands

Dengue Forum heated up about Fogging

A major Fogging Campaign got under way on the main island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands on Monday, September 22, 2008. A schedule to that effect was released to all media, Government Users, a mailing list comprising of all BVI public servants on connected computers, and a Vector e-List, community members who have submitted their e-mail addresses to receive Dengue alerts.

This has been done for several years without fail. However, this time around, news of the activity attracted a lively debate on two online forums, one more so than the other.

A poster on that forum, dissatisfied with the line of the discussion, called me at my office to inform me it. Naturally, I entered the forum to answer the burning questions being asked and to address the misconceptions that were being voiced.

The discussion thread has pretty much come to a close. But the information therein is of significant importance to the understanding of the issues surrounding Fogging in the Virgin Islands, the products being used and the hazards associated with the dispensing of chemicals for the purpose of mosquito control.

You are encouraged to read the discussions on B.V.I. Platinum News and BVI News online. Post your own Comments on the subject on the Woodshed Coalition’s Talk to me page.

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London, England

Mutant Malaria skeeters

British scientists from London’s Imperial College have laid claim to successfully modifying the genetic structure of mosquitoes, rendering them incapable of spreading killer diseases like Malaria.

Under the leadership of Andrea Crisanti, who in 2005 proved that it was in fact possible to genetically modify male mosquitoes by inserting a gene that glowed fluorescent green, the researchers recently modified hundreds in the hope that will be used to fight Malaria some day.

Using this technology, Crisanti and his team now plan to so sterilise male mosquitoes that when released into the wild would mate with females thereby stunting their population and breaking the transmission cycle of the disease. That is in addition to the possible engineering of a malaria-resistant mosquito.

Chrisanti is set to do some rigorous testing, which would involve a test release of the modified mosquitoes in Southern Italy to find out how they would interact with wild mosquitoes and how many (in the billions say the sceptics) would be needed to control Malaria, a disease that claims about three million lives each year, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Puerto Rico

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 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. They proceeded to investigate this issue in a pointed study, the results of which have been published in the journal of Medical and Veterinary Entomology.

The hypothesis was surely not just to prove that Aedes aegypti mosquitoes were given to sharing the same habitats with other species – no news here. Rather, they yearned to substantiate the degree to which aegypti had a propensity for intensive breeding in septic tanks.

The CDC story, “Unusual productivity of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in septic tanks and the implications for dengue control,” appeared in the March 2008 issue of Medical and Veterinary Entomology. It showed that large numbers of the Dengue mosquitoes were to be found breeding in septic tanks.

The use of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology had led the researchers underground in the subject area. The basis for this were observations of exaggerated clusters of mosquitoes as revealed by GIS. Further investigations turned up unusually high densities of Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus in the town’s septic tanks.

The use of Septic tanks as the premier method of human waste disposal is becoming more widespread throughout urban and rural centres around the Caribbean, save of course for slums and remote communities. Consequently, if Caribbean Vector Control operators have to pursue Dengue mosquitoes into septic tanks (not literally of course), this could potentially double their work load and handicap efforts to control them.

The equation does not change for Vector Control in the British Virgin Islands since it has been more than a decade since the Aedes aegyptiinspectors have routinely searched and destroyed mosquito breeding in septic tanks. As to whether other jurisdictions in the region employ similar modus operandi is unclear.

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Jamaica

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. Minister of Health and Environment Rudyard Spencer made this commitment, to create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable Vector Control programme, during the 2008/2009 Sectoral Debate held on Tuesday, June 03, 2008.

Spencer also called for the strengthening of inter-agency collaboration between Government agencies, private sector organizations, non-Governmental Organizations and civil society in this effort.

The Coalition is now in the process of finding out what specific biological measures Minister Spencer has in mind.

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Commonwealth of Dominica

The Dengue picture in the Commonwealth of Dominica has become foggy since the initial reports of the disease surfaced in October, 2007. At that time, reliable sources could confirm that there were thirteen (13) Suspected Dengue Cases in the north of the island and one (1) Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever Case that was confirmed in the United States of America. Other pieces of anecdotal and partially substantiated information from observers on the island gave one sufficient reason then to believe that the incidence of the disease was much more widespread than that.

For instance, as reported here back on October 14, 2007, there was evidence to suggest that Dengue had reached the southern village of Eggleston not too far up in the mountains overlooking the capital, Roseau. And just this week (January 09, 2008), in speaking with someone from the Giraudel/Eggleston area, it was revealed that a female relative was diagnosed with Dengue last year.

Now, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in its Travel Advice by Country report of December 18, 2007 (and “Still current at: January 10, 2008″) states that there are at present “…four confirmed cases of dengue in Dominica.”

The overall impression, therefore, is that Dengue can be found all over the island. How widespread that is has to be left for conjecture.

The Coalition is working tirelessly to clarify the situation as regards Dengue in Dominica.

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»»» DECEMBER STORIES

Jamaica

Dr. Derrick Ledford, Chief Medical Officer of the Parish of St. Elizabeth, Jamaica told a Parish Council meeting on Thursday, November 08, 2007 that Dengue had been implicated in the deaths of four (4) persons from the parish.

Dr. Ledford seemed to say that two autopsies had already been done to determine whether Dengue was actually the cause of death in those cases. The results of those autopsies were still forthcoming at that time.

He also said that he had received reports that over fifty (50) people from St. Elizabeth alone had come down with Dengue. However, only four confirmations had been made.

Vector Control has since deployed in the parish to control the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of Dengue Fever. Source: RJR News

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Cayman Islands

Further afield in the Cayman Islands, the Public Health Department has just reported that 8 (eight) people have been confirmed with Dengue Fever since October. Another person is also presumed to have contracted the disease during that time.

The officials remain confident that there has been no local transmission of Dengue for all 9 (nine) cases were said to have traveled to foreign countries with Dengue. These countries were not specifically named.

More on this story on the homepage

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St. Barths

Following a meeting in St. Barths on December 3, 2007 to assess the Dengue situation there, the working committee of experts on infectious diseases and the Institut de Veille Sanitaire (IVS) of French St. Martin have declared St. Barths and St. Martin in an ‘epidemic alert phase.’

St. Maarten

Meanwhile Health authorities on Dutch St. Maarten announced a ‘pre-alert phase’on November 27, 2007 as eighteen lab-confirmed Dengue cases were attributed to St. Maarten on that day. The authorities put out a cautionary note that the situation could turn into an ‘epidemic phase’ if all criteria for observation and tests were met.

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»»» NOVEMBER STORIES

Authorities in the British Virgin Islands and St. Lucia have reported yet unconfirmed cases of Dengue in their jurisdictions. But whereas the Director of Health Services in the B.V.I. did not number the Suspected Cases being followed up there, St. Lucia’s Chief Medical Officer boldly put the number of Suspected Cases of Dengue in his Helen of the West at 13, one short of last year’s (2006) total of 14 cases.

The St. Lucia CMO did not, however, indicate whether any of the cases, either from last year or this, was at all Confirmed. But in the B.V.I., there have certainly been no Confirmed Dengue Cases for 2007. In fact, the territory has not had any Dengue whatsoever for about three years.

Contact Tracing - to track the movement of persons diagnosed with Dengue in order to mount precise control measures – are underway in the B.V.I and St. Lucia. As part of this process, fogging (for adult mosquitoes) and residual spraying (for larvae and pupae, the aquatic stages) are being conducted in areas where the Suspected Cases live, work and are known to “play” as well as where infestations of the Dengue mosquito exceeds 1%.

In the Cayman Islands, the Public Health Department released an up to date profile of Dengue in that British Overseas Territory on Monday, November 12, 2007.

The Cayman Medical Officer of Health says that at November 05, there were 31 Suspected Cases under investigation. 4 Imported Cases have already been checked out : 3 of them were Confirmed Positive and 1 Confirmed Negative. Five other Suspected Cases already came back negative.

The Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) is on the case, so to speak.

PS. There are a number of statistical measures used to determine mosquito density and prevalence. If a further explanation of Mosquito Indices is required, just ask.