Health officials have confirmed three more cases of the Chikungunya disease in Dominica.
There is now a total of four confirmed cases of the disease on the island.
The new confirmed cases are from the Health Districts of Marigot, Castle Bruce and Roseau, health officials said on Tuesday afternoon, adding they are all local transmissions.
On January 16, 2014, the Ministry reported its first (imported) case by an individual who travelled from the Island of St. Martin in December, 2013.
The Ministry of Health said it continues its response through an integrated management and prevention strategy.
This includes: clinical and laboratory surveillance, public education and mosquito control activities. Mosquito control activities include clean-up campaigns to destroy or control, actual and potential breeding as well as fogging, to destroy adult mosquitoes.
Chikungunya is a viral disease, carried mainly by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and causes a dengue-like sickness. Symptoms include a sudden high fever, severe pain in the wrists, ankles or knuckles, muscle pain, headache, nausea and rash. Joint pain and stiffness are more common with Chikungunya than with dengue. Persons who have these symptoms are advised to report to the nearest health centre or their personal health care provider
The type of mosquito that transmits Chikungunya is also known to transmit dengue fever. Measures used for controlling the spread of Chikungunya are the same as those applied for the control of dengue fever as both diseases are transmitted by the same mosquito, Aedes aegypti. The best method of protection from this disease is to avoid mosquito bites. The public can protect themselves from mosquito bites by wearing long-sleeved clothing or long pants, and using insect repellents liberally and mosquito nets at night.
The Ministry of Health advises the public to take precautionary measures to prevent the breeding of the Chikungunya mosquito which carries the Chikungunya virus.This can be done by inspecting their homes and yards at least weekly, and eliminating potential mosquito breeding sites indoors and outdoors. This involves keeping water drums and barrels tightly covered and throwing out stagnant water from flower vases, old tyres and other containers that might act as breeding sites.
I really wish that we’d stop making a big hoop-la about Chikungunya.
It does not kill anybody; so you get a few aches and pains for a while, maybe a long while. But you get over it, like most viruses.
Except the Herpes virus in all its forms. We should even be talking more about that.
And why are we AGAIN telling people how to control Aedes aegypti? We should have learned enough from our many Dengue education campaigns.
Makes me think we’re a nation of people with no understanding and common sense.
But please, let’s stop making a national emergency out of Chikungunya. It’s not necessary!
Get the prisoner out there to clean up the country years ago that what they use them for not just sit in the prison and get fat. Get them some weed whackers what happen to hard labour of late is has turned to soft labour.
Correction here. There is a port health officer at the Melville hall airport. And there is a port health officer at the Environmental Health Unit.
Happy to hear that they are making some strides. Maybe they need to do a little more.
Three cases of Chikugunya Fever in Dominica is now an outbreak.The introduction of the disease in Dominica highlights some critical concerns:
1) First of all there is the need to improve our disease surveillance at ports of entry to be able to detect early, persons who might be entering with febrile illnesses and have them quarantined or kept under surveillance. Melville Hall Aiirport is the main entry point and to date there is no port health presence. There needs to be a public health nurse and a port health officer permanently stationed at the Airport as well as the Woodbridge port.
2) Secondly the introduction of the disease highlights also the poor state of mosquito control in Dominica. The privatisation of the vector control team in my opinion was a mistake. I was able to conduct a survey using information provided to PAHO regarding the number of cases of dengue in the region;
http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=264&Itemid=363&lang=en. Follow this link, select Dengue Program and look for Dengue Regional Information: Number of Cases.
One will find out that Dominica has had more cases of dengue after the vector control program was outsourced than when it was under the control of the Environmental Health Department. So there must be a paradigm shift wher it relates to Vector Control especially Mosquito Control.
3) Thirdly we need a better mossquito surveillance program and a well equipped laboratory so that mosquito research can be undertaken to include identification of mosquito species.
4) Mosquito control must be a planned proactive program and not a response to Degue outbreak as it is cutrrently being done. Typical example is that you only hear about fogging when there is an outbreak of disease. When we are talking about mosquito control we must do it continuously.
5) There exists Mosquito Control Regulations. It is time we start enforcing them.
Do you even know anything about the Vector control Program? Or what is vector control, and how it is being carried out in Dominica?
1.Melville Hall has presently a Nurse- EHO. She is both a qualified nurse and an environmental health officer. She is stationed at the airport. She even identified a TB infected person entering the country recently.
2. There is a mosquito control program which runs daily, in each health district where Vector control operators go to each house hold in each district; in selected hamlets to educate the residents as well as to carry out source reduction; whereby mosquito breeding grounds are eradicated by use of chemical, biological or physical methods. The residents also have a huge part to play in mosquito breeding as many of them refuse to keep their surroundings clean and eliminate mosquito breeding grounds within their premises.
3. There is a Mosquito surveillance program whereby mosquito species are identified under the international guidelines and descriptions; no need for a lad to do that.
4. Mosquito control is a planned and proactive program; it is a year-round program and its called Vector Control. During dengue season, the eradication efforts are not only doubled, but tripled, and there is an increase in sensitization when there is a serious outbreak. get your facts right!
5. There is legislation against the breeding of mosquitoes, and it is enforced.
Please do your research before making your allegations.
Since you know so much about Vector Control then what is your contribution to preventing vector borne disease? I HOPE YOU ARE NOT ONE OF THOSE KNOW EVERYTHING-BUT-DO- NOTHING PERSONS.
yes I know alot because I’m a VCO.
Cleanup the country
please specify the areas so everyone can be cautious
We need a massive clean up campaign.
Also the environmental health department must respond when we call on them. We in the Canefield area have called the officials to see a particular house which is a breeding ground for rodents and mosquitos and nothing has been done and the occupants continue to hoard debris; my God I think we are all going to get sick in the area with chikungunya within the next month.
@ bystander, “Chikungunya is a viral disease that is spread by Aedes Aegypti, which also transmits dengue virus, and the Aedes Albopictus mosquitos.”
Thanks for the information, never too old to learn.
I thought I heard on Talking Point this morning that one more case has been confirmed in Woodfordhill which would make it a total of two confirmed cases of the disease on the island. Where on island are the other cases confirmed.
woosh toooooooo tooooooooooooooooooosh
Wow.. is it contagious or direct contact?
are you serious? did you read the article? it clearly said that its transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito.
Where are they finding these cases? Would like to be more cautious and avoid them.
advise please.
avoid what? idiot it’s spread by mosquitoes not human contact.