Rachael Es­pinet

The Min­istry of Health is once again ad­vis­ing per­sons to keep their sur­round­ings clean by pre­vent­ing un­nec­es­sary wa­ter col­lec­tion to avoid the breed­ing of the Aedes Ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to that car­ries theZikavirus.

At a press con­fer­ence in the Min­istry of Health Head Of­fice on Park Street, Port-of-Spain, Dr Clive Tilluck­d­har­ry, prin­ci­pal med­ical of­fi­cer in en­vi­ron­men­tal health, made the plea once again.

"Last year we had the chikun­gun­ya (chik v)virus. It is the same mos­qui­to that is trans­mit­ting theZikavirus. Just like chik v, just like dengue, it is the Aedes Ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to. It is­the same same thing we are stress­ing.We have to be vig­i­lant in erad­i­cat­ing the mos­qui­to from our yards, from our homes," Tilluck­d­har­ry said.

The Caribbean's trop­i­cal cli­mate has been sus­cep­ti­ble to mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases such as yel­low fever, malar­ia, dengue fever and, most re­cent­ly, chikun­gun­ya. The Caribbean is now on alert for theZikavirus which is new to the re­gion and has been de­tect­ed in Brazil.

Zikavirus is spread by the bite of an in­fectedAedes Ae­gyp­ti­mos­qui­to which can al­so trans­mit dengue and chikun­gun­ya.

Per­sons with­Zikavirus in­fec­tion may have no symp­toms, or may suf­fer mild to mod­er­ate symp­toms in­clud­ing fever, headache, rash, and mus­cle and joint pain. No deaths have ever been re­port­ed fromZikavirus in­fec­tion and com­pli­ca­tions are rare.

Tilluck­d­har­ry said the same pub­lic alerts that oc­curred for the chikun­gun­ya virus can ap­ply for theZikavirus.

Last month the Min­istry of Health re­leased a pub­lic no­tice ad­vis­ing peo­ple to be aware of theZikavirus.

"Since Aedes Ae­gyp­ti­mos­qui­toes are present in Trinidad and To­ba­go and peo­ple trav­el in and around the Caribbean, Trinidad and To­ba­go must pre­pare for the in­tro­duc­tion of theZikavirus. The Min­istry of Health there­fore urges cit­i­zens to take steps to pre­vent all mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases in­clud­ing dengue, chikun­gun­ya andZi­ka," the ad­vi­so­ry stat­ed.