Government has adopted a proactive approach to addressing dengue fever in this country, in an effort to cut down on the potential for people to contract that virus.
So says Minister of Health and Wellness, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Bostic.
He spoke of their plans on Monday during a briefing at Ilaro Court to update the public on the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve been tracking dengue. We have been trying to do some confirmatory tests, because the same PCR Testing Unit is utilised to do that. But we’ve also been ramping up our response in terms of identifying the mosquito breeding sites,” he said.
The Minister added that they have brought on a number of fogging teams, and are currently awaiting the arrival of fogging equipment from overseas to assist in ridding the country of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. According to the health minister, that equipment includes handheld fogging machines as well fogging machines that would be attached to vehicles.
“So that we will move to having four teams operating across the country – two in the North and two in the South,” Bostic stated.
His remarks came as he explained that based on the calls coming into the Ministry from the public about mosquitoes, it is evident that they have a “big challenge” on their hands. With that in mind, Minister Bostic said the Ministry is working with the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and across the polyclinics system to see exactly where they are in terms of reports of dengue to date.
“The CMO [Chief Medical Officer] would have reported before that we had a spike in October, I believe and then it came back down in November. But as you can appreciate, we are trying to fight
both the COVID and the dengue, but we would be in a better position to report on that in the coming day,” Minister Bostic stated.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, who is also the Minister of Finance, indicated that back in September a decision was taken to give the Ministry of Health “significantly more resources” to address the problem of dengue and overgrown bush on the island.
“It is a case however of the entire country however coming together to fight this problem. It is not just a governmental problem... I know there was a time when people just took care of around them. So that even if you don’t own the land, move the tot or move the thing that is collecting the water next door to you. Or in some instances you may have to actually de-bush,” she said,PM Mottley’s comments came as she said Government is hopeful it will be able to bring the promised legislation to deal with how persons keep their surroundings, so that the appropriate fines can be charged.
“I want to use this opportunity to reach out to Barbadians and say that I believe that all of us can do far more if we seek to take responsibility for the areas immediately in our vicinity, even if they are not ours. Why? Because a mosquito does not see boundaries or boundary lines or any of that, a mosquito is going to breed and it is going to bite,” she stated.
The Prime Minister made the point while disclosing that she has tasked a team with identifying novel approaches that can be employed to fight dengue in this country. (JRT)