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M&CC announces citywide clean-up and fumigation …to pre-empt dengue outbreak
Acting on information received from the Caribbean Public Health Agency, of a dengue outbreak in Jamaica, City Hall’s Medical Officer, Suzette Reynolds, announced plans to conduct a citywide clean-up and fumigation on Sunday.
Reynolds noted that the City has collaborated with the Ministry of Public Health, where information is shared in schools to help combat the spread of dengue fever.
Acting Town Clerk Sharon Harry-Munroe said that the clean-up and fumigation efforts will begin in the central business district of Georgetown.
Harry-Munroe told members of the media that the clean-up will start at Stabroek, cleaning along Water and Regent Streets, onto Alexander Street.
Harry-Munroe said that the preventative measures are likely to take two months for completion. She said that the city does not currently have much in the line of resources and funding. The city is, due to the shortage of resources, accepting help from volunteers for both the clean-up and fumigation efforts. In this regard, vendors, volunteer contractors and other well-meaning citizens of Georgetown will be involved in the clean-up efforts.
Suzette Reynolds, Medical Officer of M&CC
“We’ll be spraying areas where mosquitoes are likely to breed, and that will be done through our vector control section of the municipality,” Reynolds related.
She said that there is routine work done by the vector control department, which involves spraying and fumigation of the communities, as well as other mechanisms to mitigate mosquito habitation. Hence, the work is not unfamiliar to City Hall, but it is on a larger scale. As, there is a special focus now on eliminating the dengue virus within the municipality, efforts will incorporate the work of other departments such as the solid waste department.
“Dengue is a viral infection caused by mosquito of the subtype Aedes Egypti or Aedes Albopictus.”
Reynolds said that “There are certain groups within our communities that are more at risk than others. These groups are persons with chronic diseases like diabetes, renal problems, asthma, liver diseases, etc. Pregnant women, post natal women, infants (0-12 months), and adults over 60 years [are also particularly vulnerable].
Persons who have had dengue before may not contract it again. However, there are four types of dengue (I, II, III, IV). A person may contract one type of dengue even if they’ve been infected by another before. In such cases, a person would suffer a worse manifestation of the illness, Reynolds noted.
She advised the use of mosquito netting as a preventative measure for persons who are infected and those who are not. This is because a healthy mosquito, bearing no signs of disease, could collect the virus from an infected person and transmit it to another. This could allow an entire family or community to become infected.
She also advised sealing of houses, including meshed screens on windows. She said the practice allowing children to wear long sleeved shirts, long pants, and socks when leaving the house, especially during the evening, would be preferred.
Also favourable is the use of insect repellents which contain the active compound DEET (N,N-Diethyl-m-toluamide). She said that it is safe to use on children. In the absence of such a product, Reynolds said that the essential oil lemon eucalyptus could serve as a substitute, when applied every two hours to the skin.
Limited exposure to areas in communities such as trenches is advised, at dusk and dawn, when the mosquitoes are more active.
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