GREAT BAY (DCOMM):--- Collective Prevention Services (CPS), an agency of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour says Chikungunya was incorporated into its dengue response plans since the latter half of 2012 after a public health representative from CPS attended a workshop in Jamaica in May 2012.
Chikungunya (CHIK) fever is an emerging, mosquito-borne disease caused by an alphavirus, Chikungunya virus (CHIKV). This disease is transmitted predominantly by Aedes aeqypti and Ae. Albopictus mosquitoes, the same species involved in the transmission of dengue.
Country Sint Maarten's Ministry of Public Health has been actively appealing to the public to reduce breeding sites and clean-up around their properties. Numerous press releases with the Minister of Public Health's 'Get Checked' campaign, and adverts in the Government Information Page (GIP) have been published along with public service announcements in the broadcast media.
Ministry of Public Health Vector Control Team have been visiting homes and other properties on a monthly basis appealing to residents to clean-up and also providing information about the two vector borne diseases.
Other interventions that have taken place are: fogging; training of vector control staff; placing physicians on alert and increasing public health surveillance for Chikungunya; national, regional and international public health organizations appraised as part of reporting protocols; yard to yard inspections planned for Belvedere and Oyster Pond area; and alerting ports of entry and providing information flyers to visitors.
As Minister of Public Health Hon. Cornelius de Weever has said before, "One can only combat these vector borne diseases by everyone doing their share individually and collectively."
Health authorities from both sides of the island are currently working closely together to deal with the challenges of dengue and Chikungunya. Country Sint Maarten does not have any confirmed cases of Chikungunya while the North side of the island has confirmed 10 cases.
Caribbean health officials back in the summer of 2012 called on countries and territories to prepare for the introduction of CHIK) into the Region, and to review present dengue response plans and adjust them to incorporate the aforementioned virus, which is more active than dengue.
CHIKV epidemics have shown cyclical trends, with inter-epidemic periods ranging from four to 30 years. Since 2004, CHIKV has expanded its geographical range, causing sustained epidemics of unprecedented magnitude in Asia and Africa.
Although areas of in Asia and Africa are considered to be endemic for the disease, the virus produced outbreaks in many new territories in the Indian Ocean islands and in Italy. This recent re-emergence of CHIKV has heightened the world's public health awareness and concern about this virus.
According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/World Health Organization (WHO), controlling the spread of anthropod-borne viruses in the Americas has not been very successful.
In 2012 it was said, although indigenous transmission of CHIKV does not occur in the Americas now, the risk for its introduction into local vector mosquito populations is likely higher than had previously been thought, especially in tropical and subtropical areas where Ae. Aegypti, of the main vectors of CHIKV, has a broad distribution.
Between 2006 and 2010, 106 laboratory-confirmed or probable cases of CHIKV were detected among travelers returning to the United States, compared to only three cases reported between 1995 and 2005. There have also been imported CHIK cases reported in the French territories in the Americas since 2006 in Martinique, in Guadeloupe, and Guyana.
