Opposition urges Health Ministry to bolster vector control amid dengue outbreak fears
Vanassa McKenzie / Our Today
The Ministry of Health and Wellness is being urged to increase its vector control efforts to reduce the risk of a dengue outbreak as some communities experience an increase in mosquito populations following Hurricane Beryl.
This call is coming from the opposition spokesperson on health and wellness, Dr. Alfred Dawes.
The shadow minister, in a statement on Wednesday (July 23), said several communities have been impacted by an increase in their mosquito populations, including Portmore municipality, leaving residents who were relatively spared by the hurricane to now face the risk of a dengue outbreak.
“We have been seeing an increase in the mosquito population over the past week and are very concerned about the heightened threat of a dengue outbreak,” said Dawes, who is also the MP candidate for South East St. Catherine
He added that “massive swarms of the Aedes aegypti mosquito have been seen in several communities island-wide, and residents are calling on the authorities to step up vector control measures.”
Dawes said for years, the Municipality of Portmore has been offering assistance with trained fogging teams to supplement the teams from the Ministry of Health and Wellness.
He is recommending that this suggestion be accepted and implemented nationally, as he believes local authorities are best suited to identify the problem areas and elicit the support of the citizens with whom the councillors are already close.
“The fact is that the teams from the MOHW are stretched and cannot keep up with the demands of the communities overrun with mosquitoes. We cannot wait on an outbreak to start thinking out of the box and expand the fogging teams through partnerships with the local authorities,” said Dawes. “We are recovering from a disaster. The people need all hands on deck because they are suffering from the mosquito swarms, and they are dreading another viral outbreak.”
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