The Min­istry of Health is urg­ing cit­i­zens to take pre­ven­ta­tive ac­tion against mos­qui­to bites dur­ing the rainy sea­son.

The Min­istry has high­light­ed that the Aedes ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to is re­spon­si­ble for trans­mit­ting dis­eases such as Dengue, Chikun­gun­ya, and Zi­ka. While no in­crease in Dengue Fever cas­es has been re­port­ed at Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ments across Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Min­istry con­tin­ues ac­tive sur­veil­lance.

The In­sect Vec­tor Con­trol Di­vi­sion, the Epi­demi­ol­o­gy Unit, and sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ty-based satel­lite sur­veil­lance units are con­duct­ing en­hanced mon­i­tor­ing ac­tiv­i­ties. These ef­forts align with the Min­istry’s pro­to­cols for the pre­ven­tion and con­trol of mos­qui­to-borne dis­eases.

The Min­istry con­tin­ues to as­sess trends in gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion health, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing this sea­son, and main­tains its fo­cus on ear­ly de­tec­tion and re­sponse.

The pub­lic is re­mind­ed that Dengue Fever may be spread through the bite of an in­fect­ed Aedes ae­gyp­ti mos­qui­to. Symp­toms gen­er­al­ly ap­pear five to six days af­ter the bite and can last one to two weeks.

Symp­toms of Dengue Fever in­clude fever, headaches, pain be­hind the eyes, mus­cle and joint pains, skin rash, nau­sea, vom­it­ing, and di­ar­rhoea.

It is en­cour­ag­ing res­i­dents to re­move mos­qui­to breed­ing sites around their homes, wear pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, and use mos­qui­to re­pel­lents.

The Min­istry says its sur­veil­lance and in­ter­ven­tion strate­gies re­main in ef­fect and as­sures the pub­lic that up­dates will be pro­vid­ed as nec­es­sary.