BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Department of Environmental Health has revealed that it would soon begin fogging exercises in various sections of St. Kitts as a means of reducing the breathing sites of the Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes – carriers of the Zika virus.
This step comes in the wake of the Federation recording five confirmed cases of the virus and over 200 suspected cases.
Speaking on WINN FM’s ‘Voices’ programme today (Oct.17), Deputy Chief Environmental Office Jermaine Lake informed that the Department would be carrying out one of several measures to rid the Federation of the Zika-virus mosquito.
He noted that one such measure is fogging, which is part of an overall effort they had implemented earlier this the year to minimize the breathing of the mosquito.
“We would commence fogging this weekend and it is expected to continue for a while.”
Among the measures that were implemented earlier this year were ovitrapping – the capturing of mosquito eggs – and house-to-house visits by Environmental Officers.
“We have done thousands of visits. Iit may not appear that way, but we have done so. When the initial suspected cases popped up in Sandy Point, for instance, the officers went and did over 300 visits to residences in Sandy Point,” Lake explained.
Addressing the numbers of confirmed cases of the Zika Virus, Lake disclosed that there are over 250 suspected cases, 50 of which are in Nevis and the virus is spreading across the islands.
He stated that they knew the virus was going to come to the Federation, but they could not stop it from entering because there are Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes present in the country, and that 80% of infected persons do not get sick or show any symptoms.
“We could not monitor anyone that was coming or going out of the country, and there was little doubt that Zika was coming here,” Lake added.
Interestingly, Lake stated that St. Kitts and Nevis was the last country in the Hemisphere to record a case of the virus.
“We had suspicions that Zika was here but we did not have laboratory confirmation that zika was indeed here,” he said.
It was only last month that the country’s health officials had received results from the first set of samples sent for testing at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) which confirmed the positive results.
But the Environmental Health Officer noted that the regional agency has a backlog of cases, so it could be that the Federation has a larger number of infected persons.
But he noted that the Zika virus, for most part, is very mild in nature, with Conjunctivitis (red eyes), fever and joint pains. However, recovery is said to be quick and persons “develop immunity to the virus”.
To this end, Lake noted that there is no need for persons to “panic or be alarmed”, adding that the virus leaves the body after six months.
