Chief Medical Officer, Dr. David Johnson says every aspect relating to the spread of Zika virus is under control.
He was speaking at a National Emergency Planning Organisation (NEPO) meeting on Friday, 20th May.
Dr. Johnson indicated that special care is being given to infected pregnant women.
“We have identified two persons who are pregnant and those are the greatest concern to us… we have a complete team of medical specialist who are monitoring these individuals and providing psychosocial support and doing all of the necessary investigation and monitoring. To date we have not identified any complications in terms of the pregnancy….” he revealed.
He says the main focus of the Ministry of Health is source reduction of the Aedes Egypti mosquitoes.
“As most of you aware there was a national clean-up campaign which was a cabinet decision to reduce the white goods and all of the breeding sites of the Aedes Egypti mosquitoes in Dominica. That effort is continuing and our main focus right now is the source reduction of the breeding sites of mosquitoes. As all of us may know the Aedes Egyti mosquitoes breed a lot of receptacles and anything that contains stagnant water.
“The main drive of the ministry of health is focusing on where there are high indices of mosquitoes and we have identified those areas based on the mapping that we have. Our environmental health personnel together with the vector control personnel have intensified the campaign and the action on the ground in terms of reducing the breeding sites of mosquitoes.”
Dr. Johnson encouraged the general public, especially pregnant women, to do a number of things including preventing the bite of the mosquitoes by sleeping under mosquito nets using long clothing as much as possible and using repellents as often as possible.
The Ministry of Health continues to fog the areas with high concentrations of Aedes Egypti mosquitoes.
Dr. Johnson says, to date there have been no Zika related deaths.
