St. Elizabeth Health Department Heightens Vector Control

St. Elizabeth Health Department is intensifying activities to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the dengue virus.

The parish is seeing a slight uptick in the Aedes index, which was recorded at nine per cent in February, compared to 7.1 per cent for the same month in 2021.

“We recognise that our weather pattern has changed since the beginning of the year [2022] so we have to be mindful of that as well,” said St. Elizabeth’s Chief Public Health Inspector, Everod Lewis.

He was addressing the monthly meeting of the St. Elizabeth Municipal Corporation in Black River on Thursday (March 10).

The Aedes index refers to the percentage of premises or homes in a limited, well-defined space where actual breeding of the Aedes aegypti mosquito is found, and the total number of houses examined in that area.

Mr. Lewis said that for the month of February, the parish’s vector-control team inspected 3,095 premises for mosquito breeding sites, and 275 of them were found to be positive.

He noted that fogging was carried out across several communities, namely Lacovia, Haughton, Bogue, Braes River, Bybrook, Santa Cruz, Lovers Leap and other areas.

“We were having some challenges with rain in the evenings, so for some areas we had to divert our actions based on the weather pattern. Also, there are some areas on the south side and even inland that we are having high wind conditions,” Mr. Lewis pointed out.

“We continue to carry out our health education activities right across the parish and we are doing the best we can at this point in time,” he said.