The Zika fight continues and the Ministry of Health says it has been ramping up efforts considerably- with the arrival of the rainy season. The last Zika alerts came from the island of Caye Caulker. As many as 3 persons from the island tested positive. In response the Ministry of Health launched an extensive cleanup campaign while at the same time keeping a close watch on the first pregnant woman in Belize to be infected with the Zika virus.
As you may know by now, studies are showing a direct link between Zika and microcephaly in unborn children- making pregnant women particularly vulnerable to the virus. The CEO in the Ministry of Health spoke to us today about the continued Zika fight and the new intervention methods that they are putting in place.
Dr. Ramon Figueroa - CEO. Ministry of Health
"Initially, our objective was to try to avoid as much as possible the introduction of Zika in the country which we knew was a daunting task. Once it has appeared in Belize, now our secondary objective is to try to limit the spread and to protect the vulnerable group which in this case would be pregnant women. So, really our priority and our concern are for pregnant women. We are trying to do it by doing more educating. We are in the process of purchasing mosquito repellents to be able to distribute particularly to pregnant women and we continue the spraying and the breeding site elimination, in the villages, in the towns. I think we are very active in that respect but at this point in time our priority is to try to keep pregnant women from getting the Zika virus. I know we have one pregnant woman right now that we are monitoring and we are looking forward to see. We have not detected anything abnormal at this point in time. We are waiting for the delivery to follow up and see what's the situation with that."
Reporter
"In terms of the response on the ground, spraying mosquito spray and that type of thing, how rigid is that response from the Ministry?"
Dr. Ramon Figueroa - CEO. Ministry of Health
"I have to look at the reports that I get. I don't remember at the top of my head but I know that in Caye Caulker when we had the initial rash and fever out break and we sent in a whole team from Central Region to investigate. They took samples. We got quite a couple of them, 4 or 5 that were positive for Zika. We then went back in and together with the Caye Caulker Council, we organized clean up campaigns, we did spraying and we continue to do education in that area and across the country. Across the country we are ramping up particularly now with the rainy season already started."
The Ministry Health is in the process of purchasing 3 thousand canisters of mosquito repellent to distribute to pregnant women who become involved in the Ministry's Zika educational program.
