JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 24, 2025

Two local cases of chikungunya detected: Teen, pensioner infected

by

20140723

Mos­qui­toes are now car­ry­ing the chikun­gun­ya virus in T&T and al­ready two peo­ple have been test­ed pos­i­tive in Ari­ma and Diego Mar­tin.In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan said two new cas­es had been re­port­ed and the pa­tients had con­tract­ed the ChikV virus in T&T, sug­gest­ing that the virus was now be­ing spread by mos­qui­toes in the coun­try.The in­fect­ed were on­ly iden­ti­fied as a 70-year-old woman from Diego Mar­tin and a 15-year-old boy from Ari­ma.

Last week, ChikV ap­peared in T&T for the first time in three peo­ple–from Diego Mar­tin, South Oropouche and Barataria–who had re­cent­ly trav­elled to Caribbean coun­tries where the virus was en­dem­ic. The three cas­es were thus im­port­ed cas­es, as all three in­di­vid­u­als were sus­pect­ed to have con­tract­ed the virus over­seas.Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan said those three peo­ple were pro­gress­ing well. The two new cas­es bring the to­tal num­ber of ChikV cas­es in T&T to five.

The to­tal num­ber of con­firmed cas­es in the Caribbean is now 5,751 and there have been 26 deaths in the re­gion re­lat­ed to Chik­VAs the cas­es of ChikV in T&T in­crease, the San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion is claim­ing that no spray­ing of mos­qui­toes is be­ing done in the area.

Kwe­si An­toine, coun­cil­lor for Cale­do­nia/Up­per Mal­ick and chair­man of the cor­po­ra­tion's Health Com­mit­tee, said the cor­po­ra­tion was told by rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the In­sect Vec­tor Con­trol Di­vi­sion (IVCD) that the ve­hi­cle used for spray­ing was out of ac­tion.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view yes­ter­day, he said: "Since Oc­to­ber they (IVCD) told us their ve­hi­cle was down. Three weeks ago at a con­sul­ta­tion meet­ing be­tween the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Min­istry of Health, we brought it to their at­ten­tion and they said they will put things in place.

Up to now, noth­ing has hap­pened."An­toine said the cor­po­ra­tion was car­ry­ing out cleanups and out­reach ed­u­ca­tion­al pro­grammes to help pre­vent the spread of ChikV.Com­ment­ing on An­toine's claim, Khan said he would look in­to the mat­ter.He added: "But I am dis­ap­point­ed that IVCD could leave it for three weeks and not at­tend to it. I would like to ask those who are re­spon­si­ble for cer­tain is­sues to kind­ly do their work be­cause their own chil­dren can be­come af­fect­ed."

Mean­while, the Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (DM­RC) is meet­ing to­day to dis­cuss mea­sures to pre­vent the spread of the virus in its re­gion, says Daryl Smith, chair­man of the cor­po­ra­tion.Asked why the cor­po­ra­tion had wait­ed for the virus to reach the area be­fore call­ing a meet­ing, Smith said: "This whole thing is new to us and we on­ly found out about it last week and this week."Smith said the IVCD has been spray­ing the area and he in­tend­ed to ask them to in­crease their ef­forts.

He said the cor­po­ra­tion planned to start a clean-up which would in­clude clear­ing emp­ty lots, prop­er­ly dis­pos­ing of tyres and con­tin­u­ing with clear­ing drains. He added an ed­u­ca­tion­al out­reach pro­gramme al­so would be start­ed.

Fuad: Don't for­get dengue

Health Min­is­ter Dr Fuad Khan is warn­ing the pop­u­la­tion to not al­low the hype around ChikV to dis­tract them from the im­mi­nent threat of dengue fever.He point­ed out: "Chikun­gun­ya alone does not kill but dengue does."So I would like to ap­peal to the pub­lic to do their part in clean­ing up their sur­round­ings and to take heed of the pre­ven­tion mea­sures."


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored