Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says Trinidad and Tobago has not yet entered the endemic stage of the COVID-19 disease.
Deyalsingh was speaking at yesterday’s Ministry of Health COVID-19 media conference.
“We have not yet entered the endemic phase. What we are doing is we are preparing for that. We have been very clear in stating that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram says the public health regulations have been working to bring cases down.
“We’re seeing very low levels of our endemic diseases based on the public health regulations being enforced at this time, and we need to keep a very close eye on it now that restrictions have been lifted to a great extent to see if there would be a resurgence of our endemic diseases in the coming weeks and months.”
According to the CMO, in Trinidad and Tobago, we have three endemic diseases. The most widely discussed is influenza, which follows a seasonal pattern of cases increasing – from October through May. According to Dr Parasram, the 2021 influenza season recorded “extremely low” influenza cases. He said this low number of cases also occurred in 2020 and could be attributed to the implemented public health measures for COVID-19.
Yesterday, Parasram explained that an endemic is the usual or constant presence of a disease in a given population or geographic area.
An endemic disease typically follows seasonal patterns.
When COVID-19 was first discovered in China in late 2019, it was considered an epidemic. An epidemic is a sudden or unexpected increase in the number of disease cases above what is usually expected during a period in a population or region. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared a COVID-19 pandemic, which meant that the epidemic has exponentially spread across several countries and affects many people. For example, Trinidad and Tobago was affected by the Swine Flu pandemic from 2009 to 2010, a Zika epidemic in 2015-2016 and now a COVID-19 pandemic.
Gastroenteritis is another endemic disease. The CMO said as a result of public health measures and stay-at-home rules, the level of gastroenteritis in 2021 remained low across the population.
The Ministry of Health tracks reported suspected cases for those under five years and those over five years old separately.
The CMO said, “We would have seen some upsurges and down surges in previous years.”
He said these were linked to the opening and closing of schools or changes in seasons. “You see an increase in gastro (enteritis) during the rainy season as well due to flooding events,” Parasram said.
T&T’s third endemic disease is dengue, the mosquito-borne illness that can cause eye, muscle, bone, joint pain, fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and rashes. Recorded dengue cases peak during January through April and again in the rainy season during July through October. In 2020, according to the CMO, dengue levels remained low. (KH)
