By Caribbean Medical News Staff
Reports reaching the Caribbean Medical News suggest that Barbadians are unhappy with the way in which the spread of the chikungunya virus is being handled. According to sources, the Ministry of the Environment has not stepped in to debush over-run bushy areas that may be harbouring mosquitoes and garbage collection is at an all-time low leaving residents angry and confused. However, the Ministry of Health and the Environment, respectively have asked householders and business owners to eradicate breeding sites on their properties.
In addition, reports suggest the Barbados lone hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital is packed nightly with people seeking treatment for what they believe to be chikungunya despite the Ministry of Health’s request that people visit the polyclinics and leave the A&E for emergencies. It was reported in the Nation Newspaper that some visiting A&E are sleeping on the floor and have to wait up to 48 hours to be seen.
Barbados is currently going through a recession which has seen severe cuts in essential services and a breakdown in the collection of waste but the Ministry of Health is still continuing to battle with the aedes aegypti mosquito with the Vector Control Unit fogging in the parishes of St. George and St. Lucy. The Ministry of the Environment has said that it will get 25 new sanitation trucks as soon as possible.
Reports of the US speak to the rapid spread of the disease throughout the region and suggest that “travellers are at risk” if they visit the Caribbean and this does not augur well for economies dependent on tourism for precious foreign exchange.
In a new exercise, the Government of Barbados has also taken at least two individuals to Court, one a funeral Director, for failure to control and contain the breeding of mosquitoes on the premises.
In the interim, Barbados has said that cases of chikungunya are likely under-reported with 49 confirmed cases thus far but hundreds on sick leave with viral illnesses presenting with symptoms like chikununya. Doctors and pharmacists on the island have warned against self-diagnosis especially since the disease may be the deadly Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever and could lead to death in the already sick, elderly and babies. Chikununya while not fatal is a painful illness with rash, high fever, severe headache and joint pains which may last for up to months or years. Gastrointestinal symptoms have also been reported.
The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) was recently at a CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting to discuss chikingunya and Ebola and the strategic rapid response to both illnesses.
