Antigua and Barbuda health officials warn of dengue epidemic
Published:Wednesday | December 25, 2019 | 10:20 AM
ST JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC –Health authorities in Antigua and Barbuda are reporting an outbreak of dengue fever following an unprecedented spike in cases of the mosquito-borne disease in recent months.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Rhonda Sealy-Thomas, speaking on an Observer radio programme, called the situation an “epidemic”.
“I would say because it is an unexpected increase in the number of cases, I would say yes, I would say….at this point …it is due to dengue,” she said.
She said towards the end of last year “we started seeing an increase in what you call undifferentiated fever, persons coming down with high fever and some of the other symptoms…and we did realise that you did see an increase in the number of cases in dengue.”
She said that the situation continued up until early 2019 when there was actually a decrease in the number of cases.
“What has happened is that we noticed in August something similar happening, we started seeing an increase in the number of patients coming down with fever, rash and joint pains and we did have confirmation that we had dengue in Antigua and Barbuda.”
She said that the cases increased from two to three a week and “then in August we started noticing an increasing going up to 20, 30, 40 and peaked at about 87.
“We started to think something is happening here and we started an investigation, we spoke with the doctors…and sent samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and that’s where we got confirmation that it was dengue type 3 circulating in Antigua and Barbuda.”
She said, as a result, the authorities have revived the Dengue Task Force, an ad-hoc committee to combat the situation.
“It’s multi-disciplinary and we convene those meetings and started to look more seriously at those situations and that included special surveillance. We had sessions with the division, re-educating them, letting them know the guidelines that have been published by PAHO (Pan American Health Organization),” she added.
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