The Min­istry of Health is re­port­ing that there are 2,004 lab­o­ra­to­ry-con­firmed cas­es of dengue fever and 19 lab­o­ra­to­ry-con­firmed deaths.

The fig­ures were re­leased in the Min­istry’s lat­est epi­demi­o­log­i­cal up­date.

Ac­cord­ing to the re­port, as at No­vem­ber 22, a to­tal of 1,326 yel­low fever no­tices have been is­sued to prop­er­ty own­ers/oc­cu­piers, di­rect­ing them to clean up their sur­round­ings.  The Min­istry says from this group, some 83 prop­er­ty own­ers/oc­cu­piers have, thus far, been iden­ti­fied for the con­sid­er­a­tion/in­sti­tu­tion of le­gal pro­ceed­ings for non-com­pli­ance.

Signs and Symp­toms of Dengue Fever

The pub­lic is re­mind­ed that Dengue Fever may be spread by the bite of an in­fect­ed Aedes ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to.  Symp­toms ap­pear with­in 5-6 days of be­ing bit­ten, last for 1-2 weeks and can in­clude:

  ●   Fever

  ●   Headaches (some­times se­vere)

  ●   Pain be­hind eyes

  ●   Mus­cle and joint pains

  ●   Skin rash

  ●   Nau­sea/Vom­it­ing

  ●   Di­ar­rhoea

Any­one show­ing signs or symp­toms of Dengue Fever should seek im­me­di­ate med­ical treat­ment at their doc­tor or the near­est Health Fa­cil­i­ty.

Source Re­duc­tion Tips

The Min­istry of Health wish­es to re­mind cit­i­zens that the best means of re­duc­ing the in­ci­dence of mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases is through the elim­i­na­tion of the breed­ing sites of the Aedes species mos­qui­to.

The pub­lic is urged to:

  1.   Dis­pose of all un­want­ed ar­ti­cles, derelict ve­hi­cles or ap­pli­ances in the yard or en­vi­rons that can col­lect wa­ter and be­come mos­qui­to breed­ing grounds.

  2.   Cov­er wa­ter con­tain­ers such as tanks, bar­rels, drums or buck­ets with a mos­qui­to-proof cov­er­ing.

  3.   Cut down and re­move all bush or un­der­growth that can har­bour mos­qui­toes.

  4.   Clean drains and gut­ter­ing to al­low for the free flow of wa­ter.

  5.   Use mos­qui­to nets and in­sect re­pel­lent, when ap­pro­pri­ate, as a means of per­son­al pro­tec­tion.