We are now in the sixth and eighth weeks of the deadly ChikV and we are suffering more than in our first week!We have read little which can guide us on how to cope with this disease and each day we suffer more and more!
Anyone who works with his hands and feet who has been infected should not be forced to work, and should be paid their NIS sick leave benefits for an extended period! Unfortunately, doctors are only giving five to seven days' sick leave for this disease and that is simply outrageously unreasonable! We do not wish to criticise our loving Government but grey areas about this deadly disease need urgent clarification:
1. What information has our Government released to prepare those affected on what to expect and what to do when infected?
2. What medicine is advised or approved by the Ministry of Health? Some are saying the young papaya leaf boiled, some say grated, some say it must be the male papaya leaf? Some say eat the ripe banana and then rub the banana skin on your private parts? What exactly do good public administrators say? Nothing?
3. What special care should be given to prevent death in older people, especially since more than eight have reportedly died in our country alone already! Why are there no public advisories on treatment guidelines?
4. Exactly what have Caricom governments done, and what have been the educational and preventative effort which our T&T Government has embarked on to minimise the impact of this disease on innocents at risk?
5. Some rural communities (eg Lopinot) have reported no mosquitoes and it is assumed that the insectivorous bats are saving our rural populations. Is there any programme to protect these mosquito predators from being poisoned by Government spraying in urban areas? Are insectivorous bat populations to be completely wiped out by leadership ignorance and carelessness? Is spraying the best option?
6. Prof Dave Chadee is a Trinidadian entomologist and parasitologist, and an expert in vector-borne diseases whose work has positively affected the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the world. He has also led research into mosquito-spread diseases such as dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria. Has he been consulted. Is his expertise being utilised or is he being locked out and left in the dark?
7. What exactly is a reasonable sick leave allowance for people like ourselves who can hardly hold a pen, can definitely not hold a hammer or a fishing line, or do any labour whatsoever, and who absolutely cannot walk 25 metres without becoming exhausted?
8. What is the Government doing to safeguard labour being abused by misinformed doctors who send sufferers away with insufficient sick leave days? Where are our ministers of labour and health?
With such a general absence of information we shudder to think what will happen if the Ebola is imported to our unprepared region this Carnival?
We endorse Watson Duke in his call for a ban on Carnival until we can properly prepare for the Ebola disease. At this moment, possibly tens of thousands of our citizens, and hundreds of thousands regionally are already inflicted with chikV and are suffering in silence while government blows millions on Christmas and cocktail parties, money which could have been otherwise spent productively.
Gary Aboud,
Terence Beddoe,
ChikV victims