Special committees to be established, focusing on dengue crisis

Additional measures have been unveiled by the government to tackle the dengue outbreak.

Among other things, special committees will be established in all municipalities with the mandate to implement new strategies to stem the spread of dengue, according to Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie.

The decision was made at a meeting today (Friday) involving officials of the Ministry of Local Government and Health Ministry & Wellness. It involved mayors and councillors as well as other local authorities.

Mr McKenzie told RJR News that the committees will be established within days.

He said additional initiatives to tackle the dengue outbreak were also discussed at the meeting.

From January 1, 2018 to November, Jamaica’s National Surveillance Unit received more than 13,000 notifications for dengue in its database.

There were 63 dengue-related deaths during that period.

US Travel Notice

The US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a travel notice for travelers to parts of  the Caribbean, Mexico as well as Central and South America due to the ongoing dengue fever risk.

According to the latest update, 2.9 million dengue cases have been reported, including nearly 27,000 cases of  severe dengue and 1,342 deaths.

Last year, 561,000 dengue cases and 340 deaths were reported.