Bodoe: Dengue, covid19, viruses being monitored

Health Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe, centre, speaks with senior health specialist, IDB Ian Ho-A-Shu, left, and IDB Country Representative in Trinidad and Tobago Julian Belgrave during the opening ceremony of the Orientation to National and International Outbreak Response and Carpha Emergency Response Evaluation workshop at Hilton Trinidad, Port of Spain on August 18. - Ayanna Kinsale

Health Minister Dr Lackram Bodoe said his ministry is collaborating with the Rural Development and Local Government Ministry to ensure the issue of dengue and other vector-borne diseases is controlled as much as possible. Also, covid19 cases and respiratory viruses are being monitored, he said.

He was speaking to media after the launch of the opening ceremony of the joint Caribbean Public Health Agency (Carpha) regional global outbreak alert and response network (GOARN) tier 1.5 training: Orientation to National and International Outbreak Response and Carpha Emergency Response Evaluation Workshop at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port of Spain, on August 18.

He said the control of dengue remains high on the agenda of the government during the rainy season.

“I’m happy to report that so far we’ve been very fortunate in terms of the number of dengue cases, that’s a positive for us. As of July this year, from the numbers I have off the top of my head, the numbers are far lower than last year, including the number of deaths, which is much lower.”

He said in 2024, there had been an overlap in terms of responsibility for not only cutting grass but taking the measures necessary to eliminate the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

“Based on that experience, what we’ve done this year is the ministry’s insect vector control division has collaborated with the Rural Development and Local Government Ministry to create an inter-sectoral collaboration and to make the lines clearer in terms of responsibility.

“So we expect some of the responsibilities will be that of local government, with insect vector being responsible for the spraying. With regards to the cutting of the grass, that is something being dealt with by the local government bodies as we speak.”

Asked about the laying off of over 11,000 workers, most of whom were responsible for cutting the grass, he said, “I think the Ministry of Rural Development and Local Government is looking at how that gap can be closed and I’m sure going forward that will be dealt with.”

He said fogging exercises would be carried out based on the requirements and needs of different communities.

“The insect vector control division, in collaboration with the ministry of rural development and local government, would have certain schedules as to how the fogging would take place. Of course, any request from the public for fogging will be treated with as well.”

Carpha executive director Dr Lisa Indar said the workshop will assist TT and other Carpha member states to build deployable teams to respond rapidly to any public health threats.

She said, “…whether it be the pandemic, epidemic or a single case of anything that may threaten the health and safety of our Caribbean countries.”

Bodoe said he was looking closely at the issue of covid19 and whether or not cases were increasing.

“The epidemiology division is in the process of compiling a report for me in terms of numbers. Of course covid is always on the horizon and it’s never off our radar. I think later on this week we may have something more to say on that. But I want to say at this point in time, based on preliminary information, there is no cause for panic.

“The whole issue of vaccination (for covid19) is something that will be reviewed and policy decisions will be taken as dictated and indicated by the data. I’m not in a position to make a policy call on that at this time.”

Indar said regionally, following the lifting of mandatory non-pharmaceutical interventions such as hand-washing and masking for covid19, there is a resurgence of gastrointestinal and other diseases.

“What Carpha is recommending, we are saying to you, ‘be careful, to still follow normal safety practices, wash your hands, wear a mask if you’re sick, don’t go in crowds if you know you’re a risky person, If you are too old or if you have some underlying illness’. We can’t stop people from going out and all of that, we want people to be protected and if you have to take vaccines, take your necessary vaccines.

“But it comes down to the individual, the individual has to take responsibility to say, health is my responsibility. You have to take responsibility of doing the right things, and don’t put yourself knowingly at risk.”

Bodoe said TT’s vaccination programme, including the flu vaccine, is ongoing. He said there is nothing on the ministry’s radar that suggests that there is anything other than the regular seasonal respiratory viruses around.

Indar said covid19 surveillance is still being carried out regionally as part of SARI (severe acute respiratory infections) surveillance where it is part of the regular surveillance regime.

“However, we encourage countries while they are not doing only covid19 surveillance, to look at hospitalisations, deaths, severe cases, because we still want to be able to look at the burden, and we think it’s a burden. There are new variants going around and as a new variant come in, we don’t know how susceptible or how resilient the population is. We encourage travellers’ surveillance because we have a lot of travellers coming in, they may or may not bring in something new, or we don’t want to be giving people what we have here as well.

Indar said the resurgence of measles in the US is happening is because people are not vaccinated, and it is being carried into the region, where it is transferred by people who did not complete the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine course. She said Carpha was also monitoring vector-borne diseases and doing enhanced surveillance for Zika, chikungunya, dengue, Oropouche and other diseases.