One confirmed St James dengue death in 2019
Published:Saturday | January 11, 2020 | 12:23 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
St James recorded one confirmed death from dengue fever in the past year, medical officer of health for the parish, Dr Francine Phillips-Kelly, has revealed.
While addressing Thursday’s monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation, Phillips-Kelly noted that any reports of suspected deaths from the mosquito-borne disease are sent to a committee for proper analysis to be done.
The health official said that a committee of specialists that has been convened to pore over patient data to distinguish between strong suspicions of dengue and conditions that coexist with other diseases.
“A number of times we’ve found that, where there are individuals who have died with a suspicion of dengue infection, the actual tests for dengue have come back negative,” Phillips-Kelly told the meeting.
“So even though it may be bandied around that this person had symptoms of dengue fever, until we have that proof, we cannot say that it is dengue,” she added.
During last September’s monthly sitting of the municipal corporation, Phillips-Kelly revealed that, up to that time, St James had recorded approximately 889 suspected dengue cases since last January.
Aggressive vector-control efforts across the parish have reduced St James’ Aedes index, a profile of mosquito prevalence, to seven per cent.
Jamaica recorded 10,500 notifications of dengue fever up to November 7, 2019, with over half of those cases classified as suspected, presumed or confirmed. Of that number, there were 44 recorded dengue-related deaths.
In the meantime, Natalie Burgess, the assistant chief public health inspector for St James, told the municipal corporation that the health department would maintain its current vector-control programme until April.
“We’ve received two vector-control vehicles and we’re to receive three more,” said Burgess.