The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has issued an advisory for the public to remain vigilant as arboviral diseases such as dengue, chikungunya and Zika are still circulating in the Caribbean.
Nine years ago, outbreaks of chikungunya and Zika in the region triggered panicked responses as both can cause moderate to severe health consequences, with young children and older people at higher risk.
Dengue poses a similar level of threat with the higest risk existing among the same groups.
Symptoms of Zika include rash, fever, muscle and joint pain, and conjunctivitis.
Zika has been confirmed as a cause of congenital abnormalities in neonates of women infected with Zika virus during pregnancy and is also a trigger of Guillain-Barré Syndrome.
Symptoms of dengue include rash, fever, muscle and joint pain, and nausea, while chikungunya may cause similar symptoms with muscle and joint pain persisting for an extended period.
As a result of the serious health consequences of these diseases, all of which are spread by mosquitoes, CARPHA is stressing the importance of prevention and control measures to reduce the transmission of these viruses.
CARPHA said it is critical that Ministries of Health to continue public education campaigns to remind people of the importance of keeping their surroundings free of mosquito breeding sites and avoiding mosquito bites.
Measures that can be taken include keeping water storage containers tightly covered, discarding stagnant water from vases, old tyres, and other items in which water can collect and become breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
As travel to the Caribbean returns to prepandemic levels and with the presence of the Aedes aegypti mosquito which transmits dengue, chikungunya and Zika, CARPHA is urging its member states to remain vigilant for signs that these diseases may be present in their populations.
CARPHA’s Executive Director, Dr. Joy St. John gave the assurance that the organisation is committed to strengthening public health systems for early detection and response to the emergence, re-emergence, and spread of arboviral infections.
“The CARPHA Medical Microbiology Laboratory (CMML) has the capacity and remains ready to test and provide diagnostic confirmation of suspected cases in the Region,” she said.
“Member States must maintain a strategic approach to surveillance and sample collection and submission to increase our chances of early identification of infections.”
