News
Richard Khan
Penal Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) Chairman Gowtam Maharaj believes that specialised agencies must step up their efforts and help combat dengue in rural areas.
He said Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh’s repeated advice for residents to clean up around their homes would not be enough for rural communities. Maharaj said there were many properties in his district that were once used for farming and were breeding grounds for the insects.
“You have to understand things in context. When there was rice, farmers did a little bit of spraying, there were drains, etc. Now all that is gone. These are now water catchment areas. They are shallow. We have to have a program. With climate change and warmer temperatures, this is the ideal for these things.
“There needs to be a particular agency, whether it’s the UWI (University of the West Indies) or the extension office of the Department of Agriculture, if it needs to be reinforced by experts from wherever they come from… and come and look at these things and make a decision. Things don’t happen by chance. They happen because of other factors.”
Maharaj said government agencies should make an active effort to combat the transmission of dengue. He rejected the idea that regional corporations should be the lead agency in combating the spread of dengue.
He said the Health Ministry’s Insect Vector Control Division (IVCD) was supposed to take the lead and be supported by local government agencies, but that has not been the case.
“There is a serious breakdown in the collaborative effort, which is good international practice, to manage what could be an epidemic.”
He said that although the IVCD is better equipped to handle mosquito eradication, its presence on the ground is lacking.
He said health agencies were also sharing little or no information with the regional company to help guide its approach to fighting the disease.
“Collaboration must begin as soon as possible so that we can be guided properly.
“They (IVCD) have the skills and, even though we use manpower, we want it to be an integrated insect vector control programme. This is how best practice looks on the international scene.”
To guide its efforts, Maharaj said the company relied on word-of-mouth reports. He said those anecdotal reports included 11 cases in a short stretch off Rochard Road, Penal, with one person hospitalized in intensive care.
Maharaj, however, agrees with Deyalsingh that simply spraying pesticides against mosquitoes is not the solution. While this is necessary in the short term, he added that a more holistic approach is needed and would require infrastructure development.
He, however, said the company had not received any part of its budget allocation to carry out road and drainage works.
Similarly, Princes Town Regional Corporation chairman Gowrie Roopnarine called on the government to provide more funds to combat dengue fever, which he described as a “health crisis”.
In a statement on Monday, Roopnarine asked the relevant authorities to fully equip the IVCD and the regional corporation.
“Currently, in the Princes Town area, there are several active cases. Although the efforts of Ms Alison M Rampersad (Health Control Officer III) are commended, her division is currently understaffed and underfunded.
“Similarly, the Princes Town Regional Corporation is underfunded. We are therefore unable to assist the IVCD as we used to do in the past by providing vehicles, manpower and equipment to eradicate the mosquito infestation in the area.”
In a statement released on Monday, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) called for increased mosquito control measures at the community level, in the face of a marked increase in dengue cases in the region.
The Americas saw a 200-fold increase in suspected dengue cases in the first half of 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. Carpha said member states were encouraged to remain vigilant.
“It is crucial to strengthen surveillance, prevention and control measures to reduce the transmission of arboviruses (diseases transmitted by insect bites) in the Caribbean.”
Carpha Deputy Director for Disease Surveillance, Prevention and Control and Head of Vector-borne Diseases, Dr Horace Cox, urged countries to strengthen integrated vector management strategies in their communities.
“This includes removing mosquito breeding sites in order to reduce the number of mosquito larvae.”
On Sunday, Edward Moodie, director and activist of the South Oropouche River Flood Action Group, blamed the increase in mosquito numbers in Woodland on an incursion of salt water into 65 acres of lagoon.
He explained that the intrusion occurred during last year’s floods, when the banks of the South Oropouche River were compromised, allowing seawater to enter the wetlands. This, he explained, killed the area’s freshwater fish and organisms, leaving the mosquitoes to breed unhindered. He now plans to reintroduce some of the mosquitoes’ natural predators, such as 10,000 cascadura fish, into the ecosystem to disrupt the insect’s breeding.
Opposition MP Dr Rishad Seecheran on Sunday criticised the Health Minister for his management and prevention of dengue fever. However, Deyalsingh told Newsday that spraying should not be relied on too much as it could lead to insects developing resistance to the chemicals and pose a threat to humans and animals.
Deyalsingh said this was why people should focus on eliminating breeding grounds around their homes, workplaces, schools and religious institutions.
Seecheran also criticised Deyalsingh for launching an awareness campaign too late, but the minister said it had started in February. Seecheran, however, said the campaigns had been conducted in shopping centres while residents of rural communities were at higher risk.
