The spread of Dengue Fever is no longer contained to New Providence, cases of the disease have been confirmed in Grand Bahama.
Local Physician, Dr. Sabriquet Pinder-Butler spoke about the breeding changes in the disease spreading aedes aegypti mosquito. She said, “we know that we’ve been having extremes of heat. And certainly we know that we’ve been having a lot of rain and mosquitos only need a small little cap full of water to breed.”
Pinder said that fogging mosquitos is an extremely important element in the fight against the spread of Dengue Fever. “We also have to be mindful that there other things that we need to do. We need to check our yards for things that are collecting water because those are breeding grounds whether its our dumpsters that aren’t covered, our flower pots, old tires, all those things. So we have to be mindful of that because its important.”
Dr. Pinder provided some of the symptoms of Dengue Fever people can look for if bitten by mosquitoes. “Certainly if you have a fever, a high fever, for two days or more and you have at least two of these other symptoms, joint pain, muscle ache, pain behind the eyes, vomiting, abdominal pain, any of those things. Even if you have respiratory symptoms, things along that line we want you to come in and seek medical attention or call the hotline,” she said.
In its last alert on Dengue Fever on September 6th, the Ministry of Health and Wellness reported 66 confirmed cases in the country.
