Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton
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Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton and Opposition Leader Mark Golding
By Lorraine Mendez
As the island battles an outbreak of dengue fever, the Ministry of Health has allocated funds to the municipal corporations, National Works Agency and National Solid Waste Management Authority to implement mitigation efforts.
Speaking in the House of Representatives Tuesday afternoon, Health Minister Dr. Christopher Tufton said approximately $96 million have been provided to support mitigation works through the Ministry of Local Government and the municipal corporations.
The National Works Agency has been allocated $160 million through the National Health Fund (NHF) to coordinate the cleaning of major drains in high-risk communities.
The NHF has also provided $75 million to the National Solid Waste Management Authority for removal of bulky waste which are primary breeding sites in communities.
The number of presumed, confirmed and suspected cases of the mosquito borne disease continues to increase.
As of Friday September 29, number of presumed, suspected and confirmed cases stood at 1,117, up from the 1,060 previously reported. Some 160 are confirmed dengue cases, of which 158 are serotype 2, the dominant strain.
Jamaica last experienced an outbreak of dengue fever in 2019.
Slow response?
Opposition Leader Mark Golding has suggested that the Ministry of Health was slow in declaring the current dengue outbreak, despite warning signs.
Mr. Golding, who spoke in the House of Represetatives on Tuesday, questioned why the ministry took “so long” to make a declaration given that the data showed the threshold had been passed.
“Why have we waited till now to deal with this matter when it seems to be, you know, we’re in a kind of crisis mode with over a thousand cases of suspected dengue and so on and we’re in a rainy season which makes it much harder to manage the proliferation of mosquito breeding?” he asked.
But the Health Minister sought to assure that the ministry was effectively dealing with the outbreak. He also indicated that data lag played a role in when the outbreak was declared.
“I mean you don’t collect the data in real time, unfortunately. You have a number of sentinel sites around the country, information has to be collected, tabulated, assessed, so the epidemiological function that is involved in the data normally lags a few months and so we report as it becomes available,” Dr. Tufton said.
“We could not declare officially an outbreak until the data was available, but that does not mean we have not mobilised the troops in the field, sensitised the critical public health team at the parish level or otherwise, and they weren’t out there doing their work,” he insisted.
The Health Ministry declared a dengue outbreak on September 23.
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