As we told you last week, there have been a number of cases of conjunctivitis also known as pink eye in Corozal, and Orange Walk Districts, and Belize City.
And the news tonight is that it is way more serious than we thought. In fact, health officials are calling it one of the most severe pink eye out breaks since 2005.
In just 3 weeks, there have been about 1,108 cases reported country wide. That's alarming, and today head of Epidemiology Dr. Ethan Gough gave us the breakdown in cases by district and advised what those infected should do.
Dr. Ethan Gough, Head of Epidemiology Unit
"So basically last week is when we really noticed that there was a problem because we started receiving reports from the various health regions that they were noticing an increased number of cases of conjunctivitis. We got reports initially for Western Health Region so Belmopan, there was a report from a private doctor actually, he reported that he was seeing an unusual number of cases last week and that prompted an investigation and a team from the Western Health Region hospital, so the hospital here in Belmopan went out to investigate and they identified a number of cases it was about 50 cases they identified yes, from the initial report just from the Western Health Region and then I think maybe the same day or the day after that we started getting reports in from Corozal, Orange Walk, Belize City that they were also noticing an increased number of cases. Last week we also…we were made aware of a report from Chetumal that they have been seeing an increased number of cases of conjunctivitis as well, I think there was a news report, I think they reported about 2,200 cases in Chetumal."
"So overall for last week we had a total of 870 cases reported countrywide the majority of them are in Corozal, 379 cases were reported from Corozal last week and so that supports the idea that perhaps a lot of the cases we are seeing are coming from the proximity to Chetumal, the other districts that are affected Orange walk, Belize and Cayo are reporting around 160 cases or so. So Corozal is the highest reported cases so far."
"Conjunctivitis is highly contagious, it spreads person to person very easily it is estimated from outbreaks in other countries that each individual person infected with conjunctivitis can infect between 3 and 7 additional people."
"We encourage anyone who...anyone experiencing any signs or symptoms of conjunctivitis to seek medical attention, get formally diagnosed and treated…itchy eyes, red eyes, water eyes discharge from the wyes those are the major signs and symptoms of conjunctivitis and we also ask people who are showing signs and symptoms to stay at home this goes for both school children and working public."
Gough says they believe it is viral conjunctivitis which spreads quicker than the bacterial type. Health officials will send samples to CARPHA in Trinidad to confirm if it really is viral. For those who want to remain uninfected be sure to wash your hands regularly and try your best to stay away from those who are infected. Again those who are infected, kindly stay home and away from others.
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