There have been 80 confirmed cases of dengue fever since the start of the year but the Ministry of Health say there's no reason to sound the alarm. 55 of the 80 cases have been reported in the Corozal District, 19 in Belize City, 5 in Stann Creek, and one case in Cayo. Epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health Ethan Gough says there is nothing to suggest an outbreak of dengue. He says there is an increase in the reported cases because of increased surveillance.
Ethan Gough, Epidemiologist - Ministry of Health
"The first bulk of the cases were reported early in the year in March in Corozal and it was mainly due to some preexisting conditions and the start of the rainy season that compounded by the fact that Hurricane Dean caused a lot of flooding and there is still a lot of debris etc. in the Corozal rural areas and also some in Corozal Town that needs to be cleaned up. So I don't think its cause for concern. Part of the reason why we've been continuously seeing cases is because of the situation I identified in March and with Dean, we've increased our surveillance and we're doing more active surveillance and that could also be part of the reason why we continue to see cases because we're looking actively as opposed to it being an outbreak situation per se."
Keith Swift,
What's your advice to people at home?
Ethan Gough,
"Well basically just try to keep the area around their yards clean. Clean in the sense of cleaning up any tires, any containers that could hold water. Those are ideal breeding sites for the mosquito; the mosquito breeds in clean fresh water. So just the reduction and the elimination of possible breeding sites, anything that could hold water if they could empty or cover - that would help. And also if they come down with any of the symptoms for dengue, which include pain behind the eyes, headache, sudden onset of fever, sometimes chills, muscle pains, and joint pains - they should go to the nearest hospital or health clinic immediately for attention."
Those symptoms again of dengue are high fever, chills, severe headache, and backache. There has been one confirmed case of the more severe and deadly hemorrhagic dengue fever and was from a woman in Caledonia Village. She was successfully treated.
