The Caribbean Knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN) and the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) have announced their intention to host a one-day symposium on chikungunya and dengue on June 12th in Trinidad and Tobago.
April 7th was designed World Health Day with the emphasis being on vector-borne diseases and a theme “Small bites, Big Threats” and with this in mind the symposium is targeting doctors, clinicians, researchers and network engineers. They will be asked to share their experience in tackling the issue of dengue and/or chickungunya disease in the Caribbean and Latin America. To date, St. Lucia has been the last island-nation to declare a confirmed case of chikungunya disease.
At the end of the symposium, it is expected that there will be the advent and establishment of a medical health related community which focuses on dengue and chickungunya disease. In 2013, Barbados acknowledged that dengue cases had tripled and this was placing a problem on the health care system there. It was also alleged that a popular individual in Barbados had died as a result.
According to reports, the practitioners should also be proficient in the use of research and education tools C@ribNET and RedCLARA which can support and facilitate the work between and among various health-related communities and health-related researchers.
Dengue fever has grown dramatically around the world in recent decades. Over 2.5 billion people are currently at risk for dengue infection with explosive outbreaks having been recorded and/or spread to new areas.
According to Dr Karen Polson-Edwards, senior technical officer, vector borne diseases and neglected tropical diseases at CARPHA, the symposium is critical at this time as dengue and chikungunya are of major concern for the Caribbean and countries in the coastal Americas.
“We need to come together to discuss and share what each other is doing, what is being done in other regions and to explore how we can collaborate to be even more effective in combatting these diseases in endemic countries and to prevent its spread,” she said.
CEO of CKLN, Ken Sylvester said that it was important for the health community to come together and this symposium follows the lead of the Trans EurAsia Information Network (TEIN) Cooperation Centre. These organizations had jointly organized a dedicated dengue fever workshop at the Asia Pacific Advanced Networking (APAN) in Bandung, Indonesia in January. The Managers of the Asia-Pacific network, (TEIN) are working closely with CKLN on this Caribbean-focused symposium on dengue fever.
