The Zika virus is spreading throughout the country and residents of the Belize district including the Cayes, need to be on high alert. So far there have been 10 confirmed cases of Zika on Caye Caulker and health officials say there will be more. Regional Manager for Central Health Region Dr. Javier Zuniga told us more about the Caye Caulker Zika situation among other areas. Zuniga also explained that one of the major challenges in curbing these cases is community involvement.
Dr. Javier Zuniga, Reg. Mgr., Central Health Regional
"In Caye caulker yes, we had about 10 cases being confirmed positive but we have stopped doing tests in Caye caulker unless they are high risk patients. What do we mean by high risk? Well we're speaking about pregnant women, children under 5 years old, folks over 65 years and chronic patents. These are the only people we'll be testing for Zika now. We have confirmed that there is local transmission in Caye Caulker which means that basically then it becomes endemic in one way. there will always be cases appearing now and again in the future and in some cases we might have small outbreaks but that is how infectious diseases work and vector borne diseases. We continue to do vector control activities in Caye Caulker, we monitored those closely and are also monitoring our pregnant mothers very closely because of course they are the ones most at risk. Lately we have received more results and we have 4 more positive cases for Belize District, I can say that there are 2 in san Pedro, there's 1 in Biscayne Village and there's 1 more in Belize City. the problem that we face at the moment is that we have little community participation, so we try to get the information out that people should assist in getting their yards clean, getting rid of all the water holding containers, because these are where the mosquitos breed and if people do not assist us in getting rid of these containers then it just makes the problem worse. The breeding sites for mosquitos will continue to persists, will continue to have mosquitos, Zika, dengue, chikungunya, or any type of diseases transmitted by mosquitos."
But apart from keeping the area clean, you, the resident can also help by going to the clinic to get tested if you have the symptoms. Zuniga outlined those symptoms and told us that pregnant women or those planning to get pregnant need to pay attention to these signs.
Dr. Javier Zuniga, Reg. Mgr., Central Health Regional
"The first symptom that we looked for is rash, it's a generalized rash all over the body and fever is not usually present so you'll probably have a mild fever or no fever any at all. Patients might also have red eyes, conjunctivitis, and it's a non-purulent conjunctivitis so there's no discharge from the eyes. They also suffer from joint pain and those are the major symptoms. Minor symptoms would be fatigue, having headaches, pain in the eyes, but those are less frequent. Once you know you have those symptoms, then you should visit your nearest health facility. For all women reproductive age, and who are either planning to get pregnant or are pregnant, I am advising you to visit your nearest health facility. Why? Because we want to first of all, capture this pregnancy early, we want to also monitor the pregnancy throughout the course. We want to capture any disease or any pathology that might be affecting the fetus before delivery and that is our main objective."
Other vulnerable groups are children under 5, adults over 60 and those with chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes. There are about 15 confirmed cases of Zika in the Belize District.
Email
Print