Musa also provided us with info on Chikungunya cases within the region. No cases have been confirmed in Belize but she cautions the public to be vigilant if they develop any symptoms of vector borne diseases.
Dr Melissa Diaz Musa, Director of Public Health & Wellness
"CARPHA had sent out a watching brief regarding Chikungunya in our region and they have confirmed since January of this year in our region there has been 41 confirmed cases of the virus. Of course we know that this is a vector borne disease it is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and we do know that ChikV Chikungunya, Zikka, dengue, malaria all may present with similar symptoms so they may present with myalgia which is muscle pain, fever, night sweats some people get weight loss, severe headaches so there are non specific symptoms that can be due to many other viral illnesses but in country we are testing for Zika for Chik V, for malaria and for dengue and we encourage you all, anyone with symptoms to go into your nearest health facility to get tested early for us to ensure that we do not have Chik V in our county. We know that on January 30th Suriname has also said that they had an outbreak of ChikV as well but we have had no confirmed cases in Belize."
