Health Ministry continues to monitor ‘lepto’ increase

Jan 20, 2009 News

– as focus is directed to Dengue Fever cases

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud

The suspected cases of leptospirosis recorded by the Ministry of Health since the rainy season commenced last December have now climbed to 46, of which 13 have been confirmed, according to Chief Medical Officer Dr Shamdeo Persaud, yesterday.
Up to last week, Dr Persaud had reported that there were 37 suspected cases of Leptospirosis, at which point 10 were confirmed.
According to the Chief Medical Officer yesterday, there have been five deaths associated with the disease. He said that two of the deaths were positively linked to leptospirosis after post mortems were conducted.
He, however, noted that some sections of the media have been inaccurately linking the death of a suspected case to leptospirosis, noting that the death was in fact caused by diabetic complications, a development which was revealed after a post mortem examination.
Dr Persaud asserted that while the symptoms that some patients exhibit may be similar to the disease, tests have to be conducted to confirm suspicions.
The outcomes of other post mortem examinations are yet to be brought to Dr Persaud’s attention, and the doctor expressed disappointment that sections of the media have been referring to suspected cases as ‘lepto patients’.
He said that although the cases have appeared to increase, the ministry has not, in any way, waivered in its efforts to address the situation.
The doctor assured that medical surveillance teams are continuing to monitor all flood-affected communities and availing the necessary treatment as the need arises.
In addition to the threat of Leptospirosis, he disclosed, over the last two weeks the threat of skin infections has noticeably increased, a situation the ministry has responded to promptly and has so far sparked a reduction.
According to Dr Persaud, such cases can be attributed mainly to residents having direct contact with the flood waters.
At one point, too, he disclosed that the incidence of diarrhoea had escalated but has since dropped, even as he noted that the number of patients with acute respiratory infections (ARI) has been slightly increasing.
For this reason, he said, the ministry has incorporated a procedure to collect respiratory and stool samples to rule out any possibility of the existence of a new or exotic disease.
As such, samples from patients who exhibit respiratory conditions that are placed in the category of moderate to severe will be immediately sent to the laboratory for further treatment, Dr Persaud said.
The Health Ministry and other concerned agencies are continuing education programmes to ensure that citizens are helping to prevent the spate of flood-related infections by washing their foods properly, particularly fruits and vegetables, and boiling or adding bleach to their water.
Meanwhile, the ministry is also engrossed in monitoring the rate at which persons are becoming infected with Dengue Fever.
According to Dr Persaud, the number of cases recorded for this year is more than is normally expected at this time.
He disclosed that for the first two weeks of this year, the ministry has recorded 35 cases, as opposed to 15 for the same period last year.
Most of the cases, he said, appeared to have been detected in Region Four, and the others are scattered in a number of areas.
The Chief Medical Officer divulged that the Ministry of Health will not ease its monitoring of the disease in Region Nine, since Brazil still has an epidemic.