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Health department rapped for delayed disclosure of malaria case

Loop News

November 20, 2022 8:04 PM ET

3 mins read

Chairman of the St Catherine Municipal Corporation’s (SCMC) Public Health and Sanitation Committee, Sydney Rose, has upbraided the parish’s health department for not disclosing earlier, the news that an imported case of malaria was being monitored by health officials in the parish.

This was after Deputy Chief Public Health Inspector for St Catherine, Denece Douglas, revealed at Thursday’s meeting of the committee that the St Catherine Health Department received notification of the imported case on November 4.

The positive patient, a child that returned to the island from overseas, has since recovered, Health and Wellness Minister, Dr Christopher Tufton, disclosed in a media interview on Friday.

Malaria is a potentially fatal disease caused by the Plasmodium Falciparum parasite. The disease produces chills, headache, a high fever and other flu-like symptoms.

According to Douglas, “Our team (at the St Catherine Health Department) has since commenced the necessary intervention activities in the community where that case resides, in an effort to prevent (any) spread.”

But Rose was not impressed with the late notification to councillors of the presence of malaria in the parish, even though the case was imported.

“It should be before today (Thursday); a simple phone call,” insisted Rose, who is also the People’s National Party (PNP) Councillor for the Treadways Division in St Catherine.

He lamented that the early public notification was also important for “the public to be advised to take the necessary precautions, to protect themselves from being bitten by mosquitoes, and treat with larvacidal activities, where possible, because we need to encourage them (the citizens) to do the right things to prevent themselves from having these diseases.

“So, I think we should be more proactive than reactive,” declared Rose.

However, Douglas said the St Catherine Heath Department has been strategic by intensifying fogging in selected communities in the parish.

She outlined that between November 6 and November 15, fogging has been consistently done in the communities of Union Estates and Twickenham Glades.

A further breakdown showed that Union Estates was fogged on the sixth, seventh and ninth of November, while Twickenham Glades was fogged on the seventh and ninth of this month.

Continuing, Douglas said: “On the 1Oth (of November), Twickenham Glades and McCauley Primary School (were fogged); and the 13th (of November), Union Estates; and (on) the 14th of November, Union Estates; and on the 15th, we did Dallas Lane and the environs and Union Estates. 

“You would recognise that we did quite a number of fogging sessions in particular communities, and that is because of the imported case of malaria, as I mentioned earlier,” stated the health official.