Latest update May 13th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 26, 2014 News
(From the desk of the Vector Control Director, Dr Reyaud Rahman)
Chikungunya was first detected in Guyana in May 2014. It was however detected in the first Caribbean territory,
St. Martin, in December 2013. Before this, there were small sporadic outbreaks in the 1960s and 1970s in Asia and Africa.
The disease remained almost dormant through the 1980s until June 2004 when an epidemic was reported on the Lamu Island in Kenya. The disease later spread to La Reunion, France, and other Indian Ocean islands infecting over 500,000 persons in 2005. India was affected in 2006-2009 by an epidemic of over 1.5 million cases which spread to South East Asia and later the Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
When the first case of Chikungunya was detected in the Caribbean in 2013, in four months there were more than 31,000 suspected cases coming from Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, St. Kitts and Nevis, the Dominican Republic and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
To date there are over 14,000 cases of confirmed Chikungunya cases in the Caribbean and over 700,000 suspected cases. Studies have shown that the virus strains circulating in the Caribbean are most closely related to strains found in China in 2012. This further displays the extent to which this disease has spread around the globe.
Persons at risk of contracting Dengue fever are also at risk of being infected with the Chikungunya virus. This is due to the fact that the same mosquitoes that transmit Dengue fever can transmit the Chikungunya virus.
Over 3.6 billion persons are at risk of contracting Dengue fever which invariably means that 3.6 billion persons in 124 countries are at risk of being infected with the Chikungunya virus. The only defence against Chikungunya and other vector-borne diseases is to continue protecting ourselves from being bitten (decrease mosquito to human contact) and vector control measures to reduce mosquito density and abundance.
The major reason why Guyana has had such a major problem with the Chikungunya virus is because we have the vectors (mosquitoes) that transmit the disease in our environment, households and offices. These mosquitoes thrive in our country by breeding around our yards, directly in our houses and in some public buildings. Our conditions are perfect for mosquitoes to thrive as we have a hot, humid environment and rain, these are some of the most important factors necessary for mosquitoes to flourish and multiply.
We have increased the vector control presence countrywide and plan on keeping the pressure on vector-borne diseases; once this is done we are confident that disease numbers will decrease year after year.
Be reminded that effective vector control remains a partnership and goals cannot be realized if the members of the public do not do their part and decrease breeding sites around their yards, workplaces and general environment.
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