(Trinidad Express) – Three people have died of dengue haemorrhagic fever, while tests are being conducted to determine if two others also died of the illness. In addition, there are 600 confirmed cases of dengue in Trinidad and Tobago, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Anton Cumberbatch, said on Friday.
Cumberbatch said these figures were from the public health sector, adding that there could be more cases as there were no reports from the private health institutions. He, however, insisted that there was no need for panic as the figures have not yet reached epidemic proportions.
Cumberbatch was speaking at a dengue update press conference with Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis and other public health sector officials at the Ministry of Health, Port of Spain.
With the rate of reported cases rising consistently over the past couple of weeks, Cumberbatch said the ministry had already “ramped up” the efforts to eradicate the aedes aegypti mosquito and with it the deadly dengue virus.
“The public health sector is better equipped to deal with the disease at its various stages than the private sector,” he said, adding that despite this people still made the public clinics the last resort. “We have services not available in the private health sector. Very rarely do you see a report of a dengue death in the private sector, because they are always referred to us in the last stages of complications.”
Cumberbatch said people needed to be more vigilant with their own health.
“Some patients left and did not come back when they were told to, some don’t know how long they have had the symptoms. Once you go into shock, it is very difficult for clinicians to help,” he said.
Baptiste-Cornelis, who admitted she had to take a “crash course” on dengue, said it was possible to be tested on day one of the seven to ten-day incubation and show no clinical indication of the disease.
“That does not mean you do not have it and would not develop symptoms later on,” she said.
She said spraying efforts were heightened and would continue in the parts of the country more prone to the disease.
She said despite the fact that the majority of the diagnosed victims were from Southern Trinidad, they shared no other common denominator.
She said she did not check to see if the victims had pre-existing conditions that made them more susceptible to dengue or if they had one of the four forms of dengue before, which increased the likelihood of fatal contraction.
“We believe the wind is a factor that is affecting south Trinidad,” said Baptiste-Cornelis.
She said the wind was blowing the mosquito population over the south area.
“We hired 60 more people in the insect vector control and the others are already working over time,” she said.
