PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) \u2014 The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is warning the region that as the rainy seasons approaches every effort must be made to intensity efforts to deal with mosquitoes, which it describes as \u201cthe world’s deadliest animal\u201d.<\/p>\n
CARPHA executive director, Dr C James Hospedales in a message coinciding with Mosquito Awareness Week 2019 said the mosquitoes could seriously affect the health of Caribbean people.<\/p>\n
\u201cMosquito borne diseases stress our region’s health care systems, threaten social and economic development, and negatively impact our tourism industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
CARPHA said that the World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that the dengue virus alone threatens approximately 3.9 billion people in over 128 countries.<\/p>\n
Mosquito Awareness Week 2019 is being observed with the slogan \u201cFight the Bite, Destroy Mosquito Breeding Sites\u201d, and CARPHA said the week focuses on mosquito borne diseases and risks associated with them.<\/p>\n
It said climate variability can influence the number of persons exposed to mosquito-borne diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the rainy season approaches, mosquito control and awareness activities need to be intensified. Significant rainfall can lead to a proliferation of mosquito breeding sites, increased mosquito populations and an increased risk of disease transmission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Technical Officer, responsible for Vector Borne Diseases Prevention and Control at CARPHA, Rajesh Ragoo, said the best way to \u201cfight the bite\u201d is to be on the lookout for standing water and clean up our surroundings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe two most important things to control mosquito populations in our Caribbean countries is through source reduction, specifically management of water storage drums and tanks, and properly dispose of used vehicle tires to prevent mosquitoes breeding,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Ragoo said it is also important to minimise exposure to mosquito bites especially for vulnerable populations such as infants, young children, older adults and women who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant.<\/p>\n
CARPHA said it is urging all to work as a team to reduce the mosquito populations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be more engaging in our battle against mosquito borne diseases which do not recognise boundaries.\u00a0 It means a regional intersectoral approach, greater collaboration between government agencies, non-governmental organisations, and community groups,\u201d said Dr Hospedales.<\/p>\n
CARPHA said it is providing support to member states by enhancing regional surveillance, and the agency’s capacity for testing mosquito borne diseases; and monitoring regional and global developments.\u00a0 Dr Laura-Lee Boodram, the head of Vector-Borne Diseases said \u201cCARPHA utilises integrated strategies to support its Member States and other regional organisations in the fight against mosquito borne diseases.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe focus on strengthening capacity in our countries to detect prevent and control the spread of mosquito borne illness, which also involves limiting the spread of mosquito vectors. We are implementing advanced molecular diagnostic laboratory techniques, such as, to better characterize mosquito borne viruses and improve public health prevention and control measures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, CARPHA said it is providing valuable information that can help in the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases, spread by the Aedes aegypti, the common vector for dengue, Chikungunya, Zika, and Yellow Fever.<\/p>\n
Another area of concern is the possible re-emergence of malaria in the region.\u00a0 Malaria, spread by the anopheles mosquito, was eliminated from most of the Caribbean when global eradication efforts were undertaken in the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n
The disease is endemic in the Dominican Republic and the CARPHA Member States of Belize, Haiti, Guyana and Suriname.\u00a0 However, few countries have already reported an increase in imported cases of Malaria.<\/p>\n
CARPHA said that it has developed \u201cMission Mosquito\u201d, an innovative information toolkit, which includes animated videos, posters and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about mosquito borne diseases.<\/p>\n
It said the toolkit is specially packaged to meet the needs of a diverse audience, which include public health professionals and clinicians, pregnant women, and children.<\/p>\n
Caribbean Mosquito Awareness Week was declared at the 17th Special Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government in November 2014 on Public Health Threats and is an important reminder to the general public to take action to reduce their risk of diseases spread by mosquitoes.\u00a0 It is observed annually during the second week of May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) \u2014 The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is warning the region that as the rainy seasons approaches every effort must be made to intensity efforts to deal with mosquitoes, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-environment","7":"category-regional-news"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"adminrfm","author_link":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/author\/adminrfm\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Environment<\/a> Regional News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) \u2014 The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is warning the region that as the rainy seasons approaches every effort must be made to intensity efforts to deal with mosquitoes, [...]","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3724,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3723\/revisions\/3724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drealfmgrenada.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}