HEALTH Minister Terrence Deyalsingh has said children and young people between six and 20 are most at risk from contracting dengue.
As someone who once had dengue fever, Deyalsingh says he empathises with everyone who has contracted the virus or knows someone who has.
He made these comments at a news conference at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital on July 25.
He told the media he has been advising people about taking the necessary precautions to protect themselves against dengue since he was appointed minister in 2015.
"By the way, I had dengue in 2015. So I know.
"My platelet levels dropped. I was hospitalised for two nights in Port of Spain (General Hospital). So I know what a dengue patient goes through."
Asked what groups of people are most vulnerable to contracting dengue, Deyalsingh said, "The age group between six and 20 years old is accounting for 78 per cent of the cases."
Withing this age group, he said, most of the cases involve children between 11 and 15 .
This is followed by children six-ten and people 16-20.
"So more younger people are being infected.
"We don't know why as yet. This is what the data is showing."
Asked whether older people with co-morbidities (other illnesses such as hypertension and heart disease) were also more vulnerable to dengue, Deyalsingh said, "Those most likely to succumb to severe dengue, especially several haemorrhagic dengue, where you have bleeding, are going to be the younger population, children, and the elderly with co-morbidities."
He added that children's immune systems are not fully developed, while those of elderly people with co-morbidities is compromised.
On safeguarding pregnant women and their babies against dengue, Deyalsingh said, "We have been doing a lot of work at our antenatal clinics through the directorate of women's health. I asked Dr (Adesh) Sirjuesingh (head of the directorate) since the start of the year. Remember, I went back to our activities since January (to sensitise the public to protect themselves against dengue). I made sure in our antenatal clinics, where 93 per cent of pregnant women come to have their children. We do lectures. We have talks and we give out brochures in all our antenatal clinics about mosquito borne diseases – zika, Chikungunya and dengue."
He added that the ministry also advises obstetricians and gynaecologists in the private sector to educate the other seven per cent of pregnant women, who come to them, about these diseases.
[caption id="attachment_1098691" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, left and Dr. Osafo Fraser, Specialist Medical Officer,right, look on as Dr. Pedram Lalla, Registrar IVCD, shows members of the media test tubes filled with live and dead mosquito larvae in clean and dirty water at a press conference held at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital on July 26. - Photo by Venessa Mohammed[/caption]
South-West Regional Health Authority manager (health promotion) Dr Sandi Arthur said the primary concern in this instance is pregnant women c
