Ports of entry getting attention as watch for Chikungunya virus continues

Mar 04, 2014 News

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Although Guyana is on high alert for the Chikungunya virus, which has found its way into a number of Caribbean territories, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, has assured that there is no current need for quarantine or flight restrictions.

In fact, no such move is expected to be implemented unless it is recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
According to Dr Persaud, at the moment there has been no recommended action from the WHO as it relates to travel throughout the Caribbean in light of the Chikungunya threat. However, he noted that “what we have done, and we have had an emergency meeting to this effect, is set some targeted actions that we need to put in place.”
The meeting, according to Dr Persaud, was attended by a wide cross-section of health officials, including some from hospitals and laboratories.
Among the strategic actions plotted there, Dr Persaud outlined during an interview with this publication, is a move towards ensuring that, on all arriving aircraft, the flight declaration reports are done by flight attendants. Particular emphasis will be directed to the two major airports – Cheddi Jagan International Airport and the Ogle International Airport – where the possibility of the introduction of the virus could be high. “Anyone on those flights who would have any symptoms or signs of this disease, fever included, the flight attendant would make a record of this and the declaration is usually given to our Port Health Officer at each airport and if they report on such persons we seek those persons out, interview them and advise them on what to do,” explained Dr Persaud.
The virus is usually manifested with fever and severe joint pain likened to that of arthritis while other symptoms can include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.
According to the WHO since the disease shares some clinical signs with dengue there have been occasions when it was misdiagnosed in areas where dengue is common.
The Chikungunya virus is transmitted by the Aedes albopictus or the Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, with the latter vector being present in Guyana.
As part of its efforts to ward-off the virus, the CMO said that the Health Ministry will be stressing the importance of having all flights properly sanitised and sprayed before arriving at the ports of entry.  “If you are on a flight, what you will find is that a flight attendant would walk around with a can of spray and before each arrival they would spray (the cabin), and after each arrival they have to deliver those empty cans to the Port Health Officer,” informed Dr Persaud.
According to him each of the empty canisters are tagged individually and are subjected to an audit at the end of the month. This, according to the CMO, gives the Port Health officials the ability to ascertain which flights were not sanitised to specification.
And since Chikungunya is a mosquito transmitted virus, Dr Persaud said that “we are instituting around each airport, at least every fortnight now, vector control measures…so we have people spraying the airports, so even if a mosquito does escape along the way some control measures are still being applied.”
Port Health Officers, Dr Persaud said, are trained on how to communicate with persons who may be at risk even as he disclosed health officials will also engage talks with Immigration Officers at both airports with a view of enlightening them on how to spot signs and symptoms during interviews with passengers. Once detected, the CMO said that Immigration Officers could swiftly alert the Port Health Officers.
In light of the threat too, Dr Persaud said that the Health Ministry has strengthened its surveillance particularly at hospitals at around Georgetown as well as at some regional hospitals.  And should a patient visit a hospital with a fever above 38.5 degrees Celsius, the CMO disclosed that health workers are required to take samples. And since no testing, to determine the presence of the virus, can be done here, laboratories would be required to prepare the samples and send them off to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for preliminary testing after which it would be shipped further for viral studies. “So we have to be very careful with these samples because we do not want to destroy the virus,” noted Dr Persaud even as he disclosed that Guyana is hopeful that it would be able to do, at the least, its own preliminary tests in the near future.
In the meantime, Dr Persaud said that Guyana will continue to ensure that needful measures are in place to prevent, as far as possible, the virus entering Guyana.
Currently there is no cure for the virus, moreover, WHO has noted that treatment for the virus is usually focused on relieving symptoms.
After the bite of an infected mosquito, onset of illness usually occurs between four and eight days but can range from two to 12 days.

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