Two weeks after they were warned about the unkempt condition of their properties, which were potential breeding sites for mosquitoes, the Ministry of Health has taken legal action against 43 homeowners.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh made the revelation at a media conference marking the start of the 2024/2025 influenza season at the Ministry of Health’s headquarters in Port-of-Spain yesterday.
Deyalsingh said, “That means 43 persons have not heeded the call, the simple call to help us in this fight against dengue.”
He said since the beginning of the year, the ministry had issued 994 notices, where public health inspectors warned people to clean their yards.
“Failing your response to positively clean your yard, then we revisit in seven to 14 days, if you have not taken action then we can institute legal proceedings,” he said.
Specialist Medical Officer of Health for the Insect Vector Control Division (IVCD), Dr Osafo Fraser, said his department’s response was focused on breaking the chain of transmission.
He said for the year so far, the IVCD had visited 181,928 houses, 17,569 were treated by fogging, 22,671 were treated with residual chemicals and 134,937 were treated with ULV spraying.
Fraser stated that they were also responsible for spraying schools to get rid of any potential mosquito breeding site and according to him, they have accomplished 84 per cent of that task.
“Usually, the school programme takes place within the month of July, August, and September, and that’s to make sure we are catching the time when kids are returning to school and making sure the schools are free from vector,” he said.
He said they were right on track and the other 16 per cent of schools would be treated soon.
Epidemiologist Dr Avery Hinds said as of September 12 there were 1,387 confirmed dengue cases and 16 deaths.
He explained that confirmed cases did not mean active cases and in July, the highest number for the year was recorded at 652 and in August there were 424.
“We hope that the trend continues,” he said.
Hinds said both dengue serotypes two and three were circulating amongst the population.
He said serotype three made up the majority of confirmed cases at 39 per cent, while serotype two was approximately eight per cent.
“We have a very small group of people that have both serotypes two and three simultaneously...which happens when there are more than one serotypes circulating at the time,” he said.
The epidemiologist said 57 per cent of confirmed dengue cases were people under the age of 20 and the majority of cases were in the counties of Victoria, St George and St Patrick. —Carisa Lee