Three weeks ago - we told you that Chikungunya had been confirmed in Belize - but at the time we couldn't say it with 100% certainty because CARPHA, the Caribbean Public Health Agency hadn't confirmed it.
But now they have.
A press release today confirmed that the Ministry of Health has received confirmation of a positive laboratory result for Chikungunya from CARPHA in Trinidad. As we had told you, the case comes out of Las Flores in Belmopan.
It's nothing that wasn't expected, since Chik-V has appeared in all our neighboring countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador and Honduras. In fact, this first confirmed Belizean case is believed to have originated in Salvador.
But, now that it's here, what are health authorities going to do about it? That's what we asked the Director of Health Services today in Belize City:..
Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services
"Over the last 3 weeks we had some rumors. In fact parts of the press reported they believe people were saying they have signs and symptoms of this disease in parts of the country. In fact we zoomed down on rumor surveillance activity in Las Flores area. That is an area where we believe was at high risk for possible Chik-V because it's a big immigrant population with people moving in and out of Salvador where there was Chik-V. So essentially there were different screening being done and we have sought to confirm those tests in CARPHA which is the reference lab for confirmation. And its over the 19th November that we got email confirmation that one of 4 tests that we had sent is positive."
Daniel Ortiz
"What's the next step now that we know that....?"
Dr. Michael Pitts, Director of Health Services
"From the time that we had the rumor surveillance, we went into the area to look at the different risks in that community and we began doing cleanup campaign, heighten our spraying activities, having community meetings with the people in that area to encourage them to do certain things with the environment to help to reduce mosquito population. As we speak we have to heighten the response general across the country, so in each district we have the tools out there, we have the vehicles, we have the vector control persons to do certain things. Last week we had training with our community health workers to ensure that we have an integrated approach from the bottom up in terms of vector control activities. So at every village we have a collaborator there to speak to people about what they need to do to control mosquitos and so with the objective to limit the amount of possible Chikungunya."
There are still three more highly suspect samples awaiting analysis at CARPHA.
So, what are the symptoms of Chik - V? Well it's similar to dengue with fever, joint pain, headache, and muscle pain. The joint pain in Chik-V is more acute. If you have these symptoms, you should see a doctor.
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