Hanover steps up infection, vector control activities
Published:Saturday | October 10, 2020 | 12:05 AMBryan Miller/Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
The fear of having a dengue outbreak along with the COVID-19 pandemic which is wreaking havoc across Jamaica has spurred the Hanover Health Department (HHD) to adopt more proactive measures to fight the mosquitoes behind the dengue concern.
Information out of the HHD is suggesting that the infection control, as well as vector control activities, has been stepped up in the parish, with a view to preventing and controlling any surge of dengue cases.
Checks by The Gleaner have revealed that, for the month of August, there were four suspected cases of dengue in the parish, while in September, there was an increase to 38 suspected cases.
“Since August, there was an increase seen in vector indices that have been reflecting in an increase in the number of suspected dengue cases. Infection control, as well as vector control activities were revisited so that the pandemic and any surge of dengue cases will be further prevented,” Patricia Patterson, the chief public health inspector at the HHD told Thursday’s monthly meeting of the Hanover Municipal Corporation.
When asked what areas in the parish were recording the increased vector indices and suspected dengue cases, Patterson explained that 50 per cent of them have been identified in Western Hanover, in the Cauldwell, Prospect, Grange, Kendal, and Green Island areas. She noted that the HHD has been doing a number of operations such as fogging and larvaecidal control work in those areas.
Patterson also made reference to the improper storage of water and garbage disposal as the main reasons for the increase in mosquito breeding sites.