HEALTH MINISTER Terrence Deyalsingh has revealed that a resident of South Trinidad died recently from dengue fever – the country's first confirmed fatality from the virus since 2017. He also revealed that there have been 126 lab-confirmed cases of the disease so far this year in TT.
As of April 30, 7.6 million cases of dengue have been reported globally, with 3,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Latin America and the Caribbean reported 9.3 million cases of dengue so far this year, twice the number of cases reported in all of 2023, according to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).
Deyalsingh made these revelations during an interview with i95 FM radio station on June 20. For reasons of patient confidentiality, the minister did not disclose any further details on the fatality, saying, "We have to protect the family's right to privacy, to let them mourn and come to terms with this."
Speaking on TV6's Morning Edition talk show on Thursday, Chief Public Health Inspector Dr Mark Dookeran said the Ministry of Health is going to “get tougher” on delinquent households in the fight against the spread of dengue.
“We have recognised that our education efforts are no longer enough and we are not getting the efforts we desire.
“Through the office of the public health inspectorate, we are going to inspect homes, and if we find things that should not be, we will be serving notices and laying charges in court for people found to be delinquent in cleaning around their homes.
“Upon summary conviction,” Dookeran said, “people can be charged up to $3,500 or six months' imprisonment.”
Dookeran said the ministry intends to “break the chain of transmission” by using ultra-low volume (ULV) spraying once a case is detected. ULV spraying is done by a truck-mounted device which can apply insecticide to large outdoor spaces.
This, he said, is usually done early in the morning, as the Aedes aegypti mosquito generally bites between dusk and dawn.
“It doesn’t put our workers at risk when they go in to treat the homes and can take out the infected adult mosquitoes.”
Once ULV spraying is completed, Dookeran said inspectors will visit the home of the affected resident to conduct perifocal work.
“What this means is that we go into the home to identify and inspect both existing and potential breeding sites.”
Dookeran said sites of interest include overgrown, bushy areas and stagnant water.
“Three of the four stages of a mosquitoes’ life cycle are spent in water. At any given time, thousands of larvae can be in stagnant water.
“It is much easier to kill that thousand larvae by knocking over a container, as opposed to going around a community with a ULV machine to spray and using up all of our resources.”
Dookeran added that the chemicals used to fumigate can have long-term effects on a person if spraying is done constantly.
“While the doses we use are safe, if people are constantly inhaling these chemicals, it isn’t good for them.”
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