Trinidad and Tobago: High alert issued as dengue cases surge to critical levels  

Trinidad and Tobago: The twin-island nation has so far recorded 509 cases of dengue fever in response to which 5 deaths have been reported so far.  The health minister, Terrence Deyalsingh confirmed the news during a recent press conference at the San Fernando Teaching Hospital.

The Minister then stated that officials are working on and implementing many steps, including removing stagnant water, cutting down overgrown trees, cleaning up waste from the streets, and taking other precautions in light of the rising hazard.

The minister during the conference emphasized that the public health inspectors have encountered disagreement and unwillingness to cooperate from certain homeowners when attempting to search their properties for potential breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the carrier of the dengue virus.

As a result, the ministry is partnering with the Attorney General’s Office and Legal Affairs to develop a legal platform to address circumstances in which people fail to keep their houses free of mosquito breeding places.

According to Deyalsingh, public health inspectors have delivered 166 notices to householders who have potential mosquito breeding places in their homes to control dengue cases.

“We don’t want to charge people. We just want to encourage people to be responsible. So almost all (166 homeowners) have responded positively, which is good.” the minister said.

Minister Deyalsingh stated that this was done because overgrown areas create good breeding grounds for mosquitoes, posing a much greater risk to residents nearby. He also stated that climate change, higher rainfall, and other factors are all contributing to the rise in dengue incidence.

Deyalsingh also addressed the false allegations about the amount of dengue cases, noting that dengue has been in Trinidad and Tobago since 1981. He informed the residents that the Aedes aegypti mosquito breeds in clear stagnant water and recommended them to take the appropriate precautions to prevent mosquito breeding.

Notably, the dengue fever cases has recently caused a death of the 28-year-old Nakita Rambharose which left her loved ones in a state of mourning. The young female who died due to the disease was reportedly just a month away from turning 29.