Last week, Dr James Hospedales of the Caribbean Public Health Agency warned that it would be only a matter of time before T&T began recording cases of the chikungunya disease.A week before that, at the Caribbean One Health workshop, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) veterinary public health specialist Alexandra Vokaty urged greater collaboration between ministries with even tangential responsibility for public health, including the ministries of Health, Food Production and the Environment.
"We don't have a culture of collaboration and working together here in T&T," she said.As an example of the type of infectious disease that could pass between the gulfs of attention that exist between siloed ministries, she cited brucellosis, a disease that can be transmitted between animals and humans, noting that it can be transmitted through improper handling of animals or drinking unpasteurised milk. Both doctors and farmers need to be aware of it, but apparently neither are to any appreciable extent.
Such situations, which find one government agency assuming another has jurisdiction over an issue, leave T&T open to diseases with multiple vectors for spread.Ms Vokaty also expressed concern about the chikungunya virus, which is establishing a strong beachhead in the Caribbean.
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