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.

Saturday, July 5, 2025

Health Ministry issues Zika virus advisory

by

20150615

The Min­istry of Health is once again ad­vis­ing per­sons to keep their sur­round­ings clean by pre­vent­ing un­nec­es­sary wa­ter col­lec­tion to avoid the breed­ing of the Aedes Ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to that car­ries theZikavirus.

At a press con­fer­ence in the Min­istry of Health Head Of­fice on Park Street, Port-of-Spain, Dr Clive Tilluck­d­har­ry, prin­ci­pal med­ical of­fi­cer in en­vi­ron­men­tal health, made the plea once again.

"Last year we had the chikun­gun­ya (chik v)virus. It is the same mos­qui­to that is trans­mit­ting theZikavirus. Just like chik v, just like dengue, it is the Aedes Ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to. It is­the same same thing we are stress­ing.We have to be vig­i­lant in erad­i­cat­ing the mos­qui­to from our yards, from our homes," Tilluck­d­har­ry said.

The Caribbean's trop­i­cal cli­mate has been sus­cep­ti­ble to mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases such as yel­low fever, malar­ia, dengue fever and, most re­cent­ly, chikun­gun­ya. The Caribbean is now on alert for theZikavirus which is new to the re­gion and has been de­tect­ed in Brazil.

Zikavirus is spread by the bite of an in­fectedAedes Ae­gyp­ti­mos­qui­to which can al­so trans­mit dengue and chikun­gun­ya.

Per­sons with­Zikavirus in­fec­tion may have no symp­toms, or may suf­fer mild to mod­er­ate symp­toms in­clud­ing fever, headache, rash, and mus­cle and joint pain. No deaths have ever been re­port­ed fromZikavirus in­fec­tion and com­pli­ca­tions are rare.

Tilluck­d­har­ry said the same pub­lic alerts that oc­curred for the chikun­gun­ya virus can ap­ply for theZikavirus.

Last month the Min­istry of Health re­leased a pub­lic no­tice ad­vis­ing peo­ple to be aware of theZikavirus.

"Since Aedes Ae­gyp­ti­mos­qui­toes are present in Trinidad and To­ba­go and peo­ple trav­el in and around the Caribbean, Trinidad and To­ba­go must pre­pare for the in­tro­duc­tion of theZikavirus. The Min­istry of Health there­fore urges cit­i­zens to take steps to pre­vent all mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases in­clud­ing dengue, chikun­gun­ya andZi­ka," the ad­vi­so­ry stat­ed.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored