The new world screw-worm was news months ago - but it is now endemic in this region. And the only effective way to counter it is through the dispersal of sterile flies.
These sterile male flies are released into the wild to mate with wild females from which no offspring can be produced, leading to a drastic reduction in the wild populations.
But these sterile flies are provided by the United States Department of Agriculture, and up until recently they weren't agreeing to give Belize any flies.
The Prime Minister told us on Wednesday that has changed:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"First of all, they have agreed now they have agreed now that they are going to give us the flies, the sterile flies to be able to, to combat it. But what has happened is not them, why they were not, was giving us the flies immediately, simply because there's a bigger crisis in other parts of, of Central America. And I imagine that they felt that if they bring the flies here to stop it here and, and you don't stop it over there, they will still come to Belize. So, they're trying to contain it over there, but now that they're seeing that is starting to spread in Belize they're making the sterile flies also available to Belize. And lastly, they had slowed down that, that that program, so they do not have enough flies for to issue. And so right now they're trying to ramp up the production of these flies."
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