Georgetown: An outbreak of dengue fever in Suriname has prompted the local Health Ministry to commence monitoring of persons travelling to and from the neighbouring territory. This is according to Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, who revealed that the Ministry has been in discussion with the Port Health Personnel to monitor travel to Guyana’s neighbour to the east via the Moleson Creek crossing (border). “We are monitoring traffic through this border because there are usually lots of persons crossing so and it is quite a tidy task for us, so we are asking people if they do have a fever to visit the closest health facility and have it checked…” Dr. Persaud noted.
Just a few days ago Suriname health officials were able to confirm an outbreak of dengue fever with more than 300 people reportedly being infected. But despite the close relation with Guyana Dr. Persaud assured, during a press conference on Tuesday, that while there continues to be reported cases of dengue in Guyana it has not been of alarming proportions. He explained that dengue fever is usually caused by four different viral types, that is, One, Two, Three and Four. “Actively we have circulating in Guyana the type Two Dengue strain, which is the mildest type…,” Dr. Persaud pointed out, adding that “types Three and One are the ones associated with major outbreaks that have occurred across the Caribbean particularly in Barbados and Trinidad.”
Thus far health officials have not been able to ascertain the type or types of strains that characterize the outbreak in Suriname, Dr. Persaud disclosed. “We haven’t had the final information on Suriname but definitely there is a mixture of types in those larger outbreaks when people become very sick.” According to the Chief Medical Officer it was just a few years ago that Guyana was under threat when a case of an individual contracting three strains of the disease at the same time was reported. The individual had returned from a sister Caribbean country when the detection was made. “Now most of the cases we identify are predominately due to the Type Two strain and the most severe types are Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and the Dengue Shock Syndrome,” which according to Dr. Persaud are both life threatening and are usually associated with a combination of infections when two or more dengue strains are present in the same person at the same time.
But even in the case of the mild Type Two strain there have been incidents when persons have become considerably sick due to their reduce immune response, Dr. Persaud noted. The mild strain of the disease, he said, is normally characterized by fleeting flu-like symptoms which most healthy people are able to overcome within a four-day to one-week period. Once infected with the Type Two strain it is normal for an individual to develop immunity to its impact, a resistance which is not likely to protect from the other strains.
Nevertheless report of the Suriname outbreak has seen the local Health Ministry engaging bolstered efforts in order to prevent a potential outbreak here complete with the Chief Medical Officer issuing a public assurance that continued measures are being implemented to control the threat. The dengue mosquito, he pointed out, is a very domestic vector which is able to breathe predominantly in fresh waters collected for use in the home. For this reason the Ministry has been advising persons constantly to ensure that even water in plants and other containers in the home are changed regularly, which could translate to at least every four to five days, Dr. Persaud noted. “Persons should also ensure that their domestic water supplies are covered and black tanks should be screened appropriately,” the CMO noted, even as he alluded to rainfall as a good avenue for fresh water which could find its way into disposed materials such as old styrofoam boxes and old tyres which pose a tremendous risk for harbouring the Ades Egypti mosquito which is known to transmit dengue. “These mosquitoes are really seen as pets of human beings…because they like to live around us.”
On the other hand, filaria, another vector related threat the Ministry has been battling, tends to breathe in high organic environment such as dirty drains and collection of surface water, Dr. Persaud noted. These are two different types of mosquitoes and according to Dr Persaud “we have programmes to address them.” He revealed that the Ministry’s vector control team has been working with households and is moving around the city, ward by ward, to do larvicidal treatment where Abate is added to water to remove the vector threat. But according to Dr. Persaud “a lot of residents don’t particularly like this intervention but it has been proven to be safe…once our officials inspect water vessels and find larva it is applied and immediately kills those found in the water.”
As part of the Ministry’s efforts, the Chief Medical officer revealed that the Ministry had commenced working in collaboration with the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown, even ahead of the recent rainfall, to assist with the removal of the growing garbage problem in Georgetown. The Ministry’s input in this collaboration, according to Dr. Persaud, is to address the vector nuisance challenge with the specific objective of reducing the chance of persons contracting the vector borne diseases. “We have commenced a fogging exercise but we have had to interrupt that from Sunday due to the heavy rainfall but we have been able to complete most of the southern limits of the city,” he said. The fogging exercise commenced last Thursday in Agricola and efforts, according to Dr. Persaud, will be made to complete this process once the weather condition improves.
There are however a lot of other intervening measures to reduce the threat of vector including the use of nets, repellants and other household measures, Dr. Persaud said, adding that women and children should take special precaution as they are most vulnerable.
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