Minister of Health Dr. Bernard Nottage reported late yesterday that there are 12 confirmed cases of malaria in Exuma and assured that health officials, with the assistance of the Pan American Health Organization, were moving swiftly to try to prevent further spread of the disease.
Dr. Nottage said the victims include a 3-year-old, a 16-year-old female, and men between the ages of 21 to 51. Some of them are being treated at the Princess Margaret Hospital in “semi-isolation” and other victims who do not require isolation are being treated in Exuma.
“Nine of them were admitted to hospital,” he said at a press conference at the Ministry of Health in Nassau. “All of them are being treated. I am happy to report that all patients have responded well to the therapy. Six persons will complete their treatment [on Wednesday].”
Asked what the likelihood is of malaria spreading throughout the Bahamas, Dr. Nottage said it is “relatively low”.
“If it leaves Exuma, it would be because someone has malaria and doesnﾒt know it, so it would most likely be someone who has traveled to a country where the disease is endemic and they got infected.”
Seeking to ease worries over the revelation, Dr. Nottage, who visited Exuma with other health officials over the weekend, told reporters that he received reports that the general mosquito counts in Exuma are not elevated and said they are in fact low.
“More importantly,” he said, “there were few Anopheles mosquito larvae detected in the mosquito traps. One was found in the Farmerﾒs Hill area, and three or four in the George Town area. There were also few adult Anopheles mosquitoes detected in either location, even when members of the team used themselves as human bait and exposed areas of their bodies that the mosquito usually bites.”
The World Health Organization explains that malaria is a protozoan disease transmitted by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria is endemic in parts of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Oceania, and certain Caribbean islands. It is characterized by extreme exhaustion associated with paroxysms of high fever, sweating, shaking chills, and anemia.
More than one million people die from the disease annually.
Last week, Dr. Nottage reported that there was one confirmed case of malaria in Exuma.
He said yesterday that during the time of that report, the Ministry of Healthﾒs surveillance team was on the ground in Exuma carrying out its case finding activities and scrutinizing the logbooks of the Steventon and George Town clinics for any patients who had reported symptoms suggestive of malaria.
Officials set up mosquito traps to determine the mosquito count, to detect evidence of mosquito larvae and to bait mosquitoes to bite them to determine specifically whether the Anopheles mosquito was present, according to Dr. Nottage.
He said as a result of the publication of a request from the ministry, persons in Exuma who had fever, chills, body aches and pains, respiratory symptoms, diarrhea etc. reported to the local clinic.
After examination, all persons who had clinical evidence of malaria had blood specimens taken and were sent to Nassau for evaluation and where necessary were admitted to hospital, Dr. Nottage added.
He also reported that patients who were not ﾑsickﾒ, had the blood samples taken and remained in Exuma pending the results of their tests.
Dr. Nottage said medical teams are going house to house in the areas where the known patients live and work, and are paying special attention to the travel history of all affected person and others around them who may have traveled.
He also reported that thick and thin blood smears are being taken from each person and are currently being sent to PMH for analysis.
Dr. Nottage said that to speed up this process, the health ministry has secured the services of additional laboratory technologists with the assistance of PAHO to enable investigators to carry out their reading of smears on location in Exuma.
The minister reported that there are other significant measures health officials are taking at this time as they try to prevent the spread of the disease. These include: prompt investigation of suspected and high risk cases; immediate commencement of treatment of confirmed cases; investigating all contacts; attempting to identify the source of infection; and carrying out active fever surveillance.
He said other measures include educating the public on the mode of transmission and precautions that they can take; carrying out chemical larvaciding, adulticiding, and fogging to eliminate or reduce the mosquito count, and rigid anti-malaria control at the islandﾒs airports and docks.
“I am happy to inform the public that the Environmental Health officers indicate that the preventative measures instituted to date, including fogging to the airport area, the natural ponds and other areas with large water collections, have been successful. No more larvae or adult anopheles mosquitoes have been identified,” Dr. Nottage told reporters.
He reminded that malaria is not endemic in the Bahamas.
“It is an imported disease,” he said. “Persons in Exuma should continue to take precautions, discard stagnant water, cover their bodies at night and use insecticide spray.”
Mosquitoes tend to proliferate in the rainy season and normally breed in areas where stagnant water has collected in containers and items like old tyres.
Health officials advised the public to guard against these conditions, wear long sleeved clothing and apply insect repellant when traveling in early morning and late night hours.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
