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Sunday, July 27, 2025

Insect Vector Division:

We can meet growing demand for spraying

by

379 days ago
20240713
Medical Officer of Health, Insect Vector Control Division, Dr Osafo Fraser

Medical Officer of Health, Insect Vector Control Division, Dr Osafo Fraser

KERWIN PIERRE

As calls con­tin­ue to be made for the In­sect Vec­tor Con­trol Di­vi­sion to in­crease spray­ing mos­qui­toes as con­firmed dengue cas­es rise, the head of the di­vi­sion says they have the re­sources to meet the grow­ing de­mand.

Speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence at the Min­istry of Health Head Of­fice, Queen’s Park East, yes­ter­day, Dr Os­afo Fras­er, Med­ical Of­fi­cer of Health, said spray­ing was just one method used to fight against dengue.

Asked if they had enough re­sources as some re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions de­mand more spray­ing, Fras­er said, “Once there is a case, a re­port­ed case, whether sus­pect­ed or con­firmed, we will re­spond, and that re­sponse is done per coun­ty. Each coun­ty has an In­sect Vec­tor Con­trol Di­vi­sion of­fice, and that of­fice is staffed with both peo­ple and per­son­nel to re­spond to those cas­es. We have been do­ing that from the be­gin­ning, so yes.”

Dr Fras­er added that spray­ing for mos­qui­toes is done when two con­firmed cas­es are re­port­ed with­in a quar­ter-mile ra­dius. He warned that over­spray­ing can lead mos­qui­toes to de­vel­op im­mu­ni­ty.

He said the ul­tra-low-vol­ume chem­i­cal used works very well in large ar­eas to kill adult mos­qui­toes. “Over-spray­ing is a prob­lem; spray­ing every day, every­where, all the time in­creas­es mos­qui­to re­sis­tance to the ac­tu­al in­sec­ti­cide we are us­ing, which re­sults in in­ef­fec­tive con­trol when we do need to spray. So, if we are al­ways spray­ing and we do end up with a dengue case where the mos­qui­to is re­sis­tant and we go in­to that area and we try to use our ULV spray, it will not work.”

He added that over­spray­ing will hurt the en­vi­ron­ment and the sup­port­ing ecosys­tem, in­clud­ing peo­ple. Asked about the use of mod­i­fied mos­qui­toes as an­oth­er form of com­bat­ing dengue, Health Min­is­ter Ter­rence Deyals­ingh said the sci­ence does not sup­port that just yet. He said mod­i­fied mos­qui­toes can pos­si­bly cre­ate a mu­tat­ed virus, and there is no da­ta on how that will im­pact the ex­ist­ing ecosys­tem.


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