St James vector control workers not dodging duties – Parish Manager
Published:Friday | October 11, 2019 | 12:15 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Acting Parish Manager of the St James Health Department Lennox Wallace says workers at the agency have been carrying out their duties effectively. He was responding to concerns raised by Dr Morais Guy, the shadow minister for health, that some vector control workers across the island are inactive.
“I can speak for the parish I manage. That report is most definitely not true. I heard that report as well, but I can safely say without any contradiction that in St James, we do not have that challenge with vector control workers,” Wallace told The Gleaner.
“Each batch of vector control workers is supervised by the public health inspector, so we do not have these persons going out while they are not under any management. There is a daily report on what they do, which is submitted to me, the medical officer, and other technical officers,” Wallace explained.
Wallace was responding to statements made by Guy in Parliament on Tuesday, where he commented on Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton’s report on the ongoing efforts to combat the spread of dengue fever in Jamaica. According to the latest update, there have been 5,909 suspected or confirmed dengue cases up to September 30.
“We need more (support) for community intervention. These vector control workers you have going around from all the parishes to do it, information reaching me is that some of them are not even going to work, so the management of it is critical,” Guy said in his response to Tufton’s report.
The Government has pumped J$350 million into the fight against dengue, which has claimed 135 lives between January 1, 2018, and September 30 this year. The funds have been allocated from the National Health Fund.
St James, which has recorded approximately 889 dengue cases between January 1 and September 12 this year, recently got an additional 30 vector control workers to curb the breeding of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which transmits the dengue virus, bringing the parish’s total number of vector control workers to 94.