UNITED STATES VIRGIN ISLANDS
UVI studying health issues linked to climate change by Contance Cooper, Daily News Staff | Published: July 19, 2010
As the Virgin Islands get hotter, its residents may get sicker, and the federal government has given the University of the Virgin Islands a $600,000 grant to educate the public about the health problems associated with rising temperatures in the territory and to draft a plan to deal with the risks.
UVI marine biology professor LaVerne Ragster, who is co-chairwoman of the project with nursing professor Gloria Callwood, said that the two primary health risks associated with warmer temperatures in the territory are dengue fever and ciguatera.
Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne illness common in the Caribbean that brings severe headache, fever, joint and muscle pain, rash, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. In rare cases, the virus can result in dengue hemorrhagic fever, which is characterized by high fever, bleeding and circulatory failure and can be fatal[...]
Rising air temperatures may promote the growth of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the dengue virus, according to Ragster.
“If you have mosquitoes growing at a faster rate or where they were not growing before, you may see more infections,” she said.
UVI professors are collaborating with the Medical University of South Carolina on the 18-month project, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The V.I. Health Department will provide support for the initiative.
UVI will use the grant to host three information-gathering sessions among government agencies, produce a television program on health risks associated with global warming, create an informational website on the topic, and distribute information to local media.
“We would like to come away with some interventions or strategies that help Virgin Islanders to be able to change or modify their behavior so that they can adapt to climate change,” Ragster said.
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.
