Vector control gets new equipment to fight Aedes

This is according to Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsingh, who told the media yesterday at the IVCD head office in Cunupia, that the acquisition of the GIS and fogging machines is part of the division’s strategy in the fight against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.

The decision to fast track the purchase of the GIS, Deyalsingh said, was due the absence of an information database at the IVCD.

With the new system, he said, technicians will be able to identify individual house and streets where breeding sites may be found.

The IVCD will work with the Met Office and Office of Disaster and Preparedness Management (ODPM), among others, to respond to outbreaks using predictive weather patterns, he said.

The mosquito, which is responsible for transmitting the zika, chikungunya, dengue and yellow fever viruses, Deyalsingh said, was public health’s “enemy number one.” The Aedes, he noted, “causes untold suffering, pain and, in the case of dengue, possible death. Also, in the case of the pregnant population, birth defects like microcephaly may also present itself.” Deyalsingh also expressed concern about the recent outbreak of yellow fever in Brazil where the current epidemic of zika started in 2014.

It is predicted, he said, that haemorrhagic dengue, which comes around every five to seven years, should hit the country this year.

“We don’t want people bleeding out. We want to save lives,” he said.

In an epidemiological update, acting Principal Medical Officer, Dr Keven Antoine, noted that confirmed laboratory cases of zika for 2016 was 717. Of this number, 462 were pregnant women. Tobago accounted for 41 cases.

The zika cases were mainly along the eastwest and north-south corridor in large population centres. “These are the urban areas where we expect to find the vector,” he said.

Chikungunya which entered the country in May 2014, Antoine said, recorded 340 laboratory confirmed cases in 2014. Cases reduced to 53 in 2015, and nine in 2016. There was a decline in dengue from 2014 to 2016. There were no cases of chikungunya or dengue recorded in Tobago last year.

It was noted, too, that the trend of dengue in the Americas over the last 20 years has been going up consistently.

While the trend in TT was much the same, Dr Naresh Nadram, Registrar, IVCD said, “In the last six years, since we have adopted the dengue IMS (Integrated Management Strategy) in 2011, we actually saw a significant decline - an 84 percent decline in TT over the last five to six years.” In addition, there has been no death from severe dengue in the last four years.

The IMS, according to Nadram aims to reduce morbidity, mortality, social and economic burden of vector borne diseases, and it is designed to strengthen prevention, and control programmes through inter-sectoral collaboration, education and community participation.