Woodpulp…(British) Virgin Islands

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

VI prepares for dengue by BVI Beacon | Wednesday, 11 August 2010

With cases of the potentially fatal dengue fever on the rise regionally, officials here say they are stepping up efforts to prevent, monitor and control the disease in the Virgin Islands.  Dengue fever, which can cause extreme joint pain, a high fever and headaches, has reached epidemic stages in much of the Caribbean.

Recently, it has been blamed for at least 27 deaths in the Dominican Republic and at least five in Puerto Rico, according to the Associated Press.  Puerto Rico, as of mid-July, had reported 6,300 suspected cases of the virus.

Here, the disease has not yet hit hard, with only three suspected cases being reported so far this year, according to Athelene Linton, a surveillance officer with the Ministry of Health and Social Development.  Last year, 65 cases were reported, but the disease caused no fatalities, she said.

Ms. Linton said that the ministry coordinates the territory’s National Outbreak Response Team and receives weekly reports of suspected cases from 15 clinics and medical providers across the VI.

There are four types of dengue fever, all of which are transmitted through the female Aedes aegypti mosquito.

A seasonal increase in rains typically leads to an increase in dengue cases, according to Chief Environmental Health Officer Carnel Smith.  “We are quite vulnerable to this because of the habit of storing water in containers as well as we have people travelling throughout the region from one Caribbean island to another where dengue transmission is possible,” Mr. Smith said.

He added that prevention of the disease means going after mosquitoes.  His department sends teams out to spread chemical fog to kill the adult mosquitoes and puts anti-malarial oil into large bodies of standing water to prevent larvae from breathing oxygen and developing.[...]