Malaria Strain in St. Elizabeth not the Same as Corporate Area

Minister of Information and Development, Donald Buchanan, has said that the three cases of malaria, which were recently detected in the Great Bay area of St. Elizabeth, were not the same strain of the disease that was discovered in the corporate area.
“There is a peculiarity about the cases in St. Elizabeth. Whereas the cases that have been recognized in the corporate area and its environs are of what is known as the plasmodium falcifarum type, the one discovered in St. Elizabeth is from the parasite plasmodium vevax, which is a different species of the malaria parasite,” the Information Minister said at yesterday (Feb. 8) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.
He said the indications were that these cases were “as a direct result of persons returning from Central America”.
In light of this, an extensive programme of vector control is being conducted along the St. Elizabeth coast, stretching all the way down to Whitehouse in Westmoreland. “That programme is going to be maintained until all the vestiges of the appearance of these incidents have been eliminated,” Mr. Buchanan stated.
According to a report submitted to Cabinet today by Minister of Health, Horace Dalley, there are now some 287 confirmed cases of the disease.
Of the total, 268 are in Kingston and St. Andrew; 12 in St. Catherine; one in Clarendon; and three in St. Thomas.