By Geisha Kowlessar
With Carnival in full swing and given the influx of visitors to this country, it is important that precautionary measures be taken in light of the rapidly spreading Zika virus.
But screening at ports of entry does not make sense as infected people exhibit little or no symptoms.
So said Dr James Hospedales, head of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), at a media conference hosted by the agency in Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
“T&T, like many other countries, celebrates Carnival which brings visitors from elsewhere in the Caribbean and internationally
“A high percentage of people infected with the Zika virus exhibit no symptoms and thus screening at the airport would not make any sense.
‘But what is important is a high index of suspicion by health providers, for example, to take a travel history of patients presenting with a Zika-like illness and a good knowledge of the population,” Hospedales said.
Leptospirosis and malaria, he added, could have similar symptoms to Zika, and doctors and health workers needed to consider these possibilities when attending to patients with Zika-like symptoms.
Saying that the situation was rapidly evolving, Hospedales added, “As a new disease in this population, it’s not completely clear how it will behave.
“Statistics show that while heart disease, diabetes and cancer are the main causes of preventable death and health care costs, we can never let our guard down where infectious diseases are concerned.”
He said the conditions in the Caribbean made it ideal for the virus to easily spread given the abundance of mosquitoes and frequent travel and movement.
To date there have been no confirmed cases of Zika in the Caribbean apart from Haiti, but CARPHA has been working closely with the health ministry to detect any cases.
Dr Joy St John, director of surveillance, disease prevention and control at CARPHA, who also spoke, urged that public health surveillance was a key strategy in the fight against any disease which entailed the ongoing scrutiny of all aspects of a disease pertinent to effective control.
She said before a country was declared as having a local outbreak, a laboratory was critical to confirm the diagnosis.
“In light of this possibility, CARPHA has developed the capacity for Zika testing and has been actively engaged in the testing of samples from many member states as they set up their surveillance activities focused on detecting the arrival of this virus to our collective shores,” St John said.
She said at this time Polymerase Chain Reaction testing, capable of identifying genetic material from Zika, was the only reliable test for the virus.
“Antibody testing is less conclusive because a large proportion of the population in our member states will have antibodies to another similar virus, the dengue virus, endemic in many parts of the region which can confuse test results,” St John said.
Zika follow-up
She said special attention was warranted in the follow-up of patients for varying types of neurological sequelae (an abnormal condition resulting from a previous disease) after Zika infection and particular attention should be paid to following up pregnant patients who present with febrile illness compatible with Zika.
“CARPHA is currently in the process of piloting systems to facilitate the documentation of such cases, should they occur, so as to detect any similar patterns of association in the Caribbean region, as early as possible.
“Barbados has been chosen as the pilot site for this activity,” St John added. She also urged that the best epidemiological data be provided in order for countries to keep abreast of practices in addressing the clinical manifestations of the illness as well as the best practices in vector control.(Trinidad Guardian)
