 Hello and welcome to HealthFocus, a production of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. I am Fenel Neptune. Today we have with us the Environmental Health Officer for Vector Control, Glenda Etienne Seapal. We'll provide us with some information on mosquitoes and mosquito control. Welcome to the program. Thank you Fenel. Great. Mosquitoes are something that affect a lot of us in Zinc Lucio. Can you perhaps tell us a little more about mosquitoes and how does it affect humans? Mosquitoes are tiny flying insects with the ability to transmit diseases to humans and animals. We have, there are so many different species of mosquitoes in the world. The only place in the world that we don't find mosquitoes is in Antarctica. Those that have public health importance right here in St Lucio, the Edizipti Mosquito, the Kulex Mosquito and the Norphilis Mosquito. Okay, great. And why is it necessary first to actually get rid of those mosquitoes? Mosquitoes are what we call domesticated, meaning that they prefer to live around humans and animals. The reason that they want to live around us is because they need, they depend on our blood to fertilize the eggs. So they will breed or lay in eggs in containers around your home so that they can get a blood meal when they're ready. Okay. And you mentioned that mosquitoes actually lay their eggs in containers. If you could elaborate a little more in terms of places that the mosquitoes actually lay their eggs besides containers. So what we've noticed at our office, when our officers do surveillance, we see a lot of drums. People tend to store water because of maybe the location, the way that their terrain is and they're not able to get access to water. So people tend to store water. So we see a lot of drums being a source of mosquito breeding. We see tires being a source of mosquito breeding, garbage, the way we dispose of our garbage. As long as water can collect, mosquito will lay in as little as a bottle cap full of water. So as long as water can collect in any container and that water is standing, mosquitoes will lay their eggs in those, in those sources. And we follow that being said. How can we actually prevent this mosquito breeding? How can persons in the community actually help to prevent the mosquito breeding? Mosquito control is everybody's responsibility. Because if I am doing what I'm supposed to be doing and you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing, the mosquitoes will not just remain at my home. It will be our problem. So in order for us to effectively get rid of mosquitoes, everybody has to come together. It's simple. Get rid of standing water. If we have no standing water, the mosquito population will reduce. So people just need to come together, get rid of anything that has standing water. You properly cover your drums. Once upon a time, people used to cover their drums with cloth. But what you would realize after it rains or that cloth gets wet, it would sink to the bottom and water would flood on top of the cloth or whatever they're using. So what we're asking is for people to use a tighter fitting material. What we recommend is people could use mesh, mesh with tiny holes so that the mosquitoes won't get access to it. Your buckets, you properly cover your buckets. Gabbage, for example, coconut husk, your roof gutters, for example. People neglect their roof gutters, especially because of how high it is on their homes. But what we would say is at least once a month, check your roof gutters. And something that would give you an indication that your roof gutters are breeding is that there isn't a free flow of water coming down the downspout so that you have an indication that you may need to clear your roof gutters. So just a seven minute, seven minutes at least. You take a walk around your home, inspect your property and anything that has standing water, you dispose of it. And for some persons, they might say, okay, I'm doing all of those things around my surroundings, but I'm still getting mosquitoes and it might be the neighbor. What advice would you give them? You can ask your neighbor. We know that we live in a culture where people may not be approachable, but you can speak to the neighbor and let them know what is affecting you. If you may have issues with that, you can always speak with somebody at Environmental Health and we could come and assist you with that issue that you may have with your neighbor. And for instance, somebody might have a lot of mosquito tolls around in their surroundings. How can that person actually prevent getting mosquito bites? To prevent your stress from getting mosquito bites is easy. Either you use repellents or you cover up yourself. You must ensure that you wear light covering because mosquitoes are attracted to dark colors. But what we say, let's prevent the problem before it starts. So you clean up, you get rid of the clutter. Mosquitoes hiding in dark places. So you open up, you clean up the clutter to prevent the mosquitoes from coming in. You prevent the mosquitoes from breathing in the first place. But if it's a situation where you do have mosquitoes, you can cover up, you can wear your repellent to prevent the mosquitoes from biting. Wonderful. While we are due for a break, we will be back in a moment. I am Dr. Gemma Sherry and I am here to give some tips to help you with the proper use of your homemade mask. Face mask help reduce the spread of infectious diseases. When wearing a mask and using it as recommended, you are at less risk of contracting or spreading viruses. When wearing a mask, ensure that it is clean. Wearing a mask that has been washed reduces your chances of being exposed to infection. Wash or sanitize your hands before putting on your mask and before removing your mask. As well as after taking it off. Do not share your mask with others. Your mask should not be taken away from your face and given to others for their use. This contributes to possible spread of infections. Place your use cloth mask into a resealable bag if you do not plan to wash it right away. This prevents spreading any virus to other objects or surfaces. Wash cloth masks with soap and water and put to dry in sunlight, allowing it to dry thoroughly. Face masks should not be placed on young children under two years of age. Anyone who has trouble breathing or is unconscious or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance. So bear in mind that masks are effective in preventing viruses from spreading. But they are only one tool in preventing and controlling infections. So remember to daily practice the required hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette and physical distancing. These actions in combination make a big difference in reducing infections. Welcome back. We will continue our discussion with Glendal AT&T and C-PAL on mosquitoes and mosquito control. Okay, before we took the break, we were talking in terms of how to prevent mosquito bites. And we know of course mosquitoes carry viruses and one of the common mosquitoes is the Edizidiptaim mosquito. Can you tell us one of the common viruses carried by that mosquito? We have, the Edizidiptaim mosquito, she's responsible for transmitting a few diseases. The one that is common, I've been saying to say is dengue fever that we all know about. Dengue fever will exhibit symptoms like the flu. You may get dengue fever and you may not even know that you have dengue fever because you may have a headache, you may get a headache, you may be vomiting, you may have eye pain, you may have a fever, but you may think that you may be getting the flu. The only way that you can tell that you have dengue fever is if you visit a doctor. They would run a test and they would tell you whether it's just the flu or you have dengue fever. Okay, so I'm guessing if somebody has a lot of mosquitoes around and they have those symptoms, it would be advisable that they visit a doctor. Yes, and even when you get, and if you're not sure that you have dengue fever, it is wise that you protect yourselves. For example, you sleep under the mosquito net because the thing about the mosquito is that the mosquito will enter your home and infect bite you, get the virus from you and infect the rest of your family members. So it is wise that you protect yourself, especially if you're not sure that you have dengue fever. Okay, and how can a person actually cure from dengue? We currently don't have a virus from dengue fever. If you go to the doctor, what will happen is that the doctor will treat your signs and symptoms. If you're vomiting, they may give you something to suppress that. If you have a headache, they will give you painkillers. If you have dengue fever, they will recommend taking rest, taking in fluids. They will recommend panadoles. We must remember that we should not be taking anything like Tylenol, not ibuprofen. Anything that would cause you to bleed, something we call blood thinners, we must make sure that we don't take these because it could cause you to bleed out. So that would be something like aspirin? Yes, like aspirin, yes. Okay, great. And we spoke in terms of dengue, but a lot of persons might say, okay, yes, we're playing our part in the community. But what exactly is Ministry of Health doing? What is the Environmental Health Division actually doing to prevent and treat mosquitoes? Every day, our officers go out. We do what we call entomological surveillance. That is just going to people's homes and conducting surveillance, actively looking for breeding grounds of mosquitoes so that we can destroy them. We well, we out on the field, we educate the public so that we give them some kind of responsibility. At the end of the day, we can only do a cycle once for a year. When I say a cycle, we can only visit a community sometimes once for a year. And so during the time that we have not visited your home, the owners is on you. It takes, like I said earlier, it takes about seven minutes to just do a walk around your home, look for what is breeding and get rid of it. Okay, so you'll visit different communities? Different communities. And some people make call us and say, oh, but do we have so many mosquitoes and we have not seen an officer? But sometimes your turn has already passed and we're moving on. Great. And you said it's the owners is on us, meaning the persons in the community also have a path to play. Can you elaborate a little more in terms of the community members playing a part in actually stopping the breeding of mosquitoes? Again, earlier I said, I mentioned that if I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing and you're the neighbor, you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing. The mosquitoes will not stay on one person's property. The mosquitoes will be flying within that community. So at the end of the day, what we need to do is just turn over your container, cover your container. If you're not using the water, get rid of the water. If you plan to use it, cover it properly so that the mosquitoes don't get access to it. And in that way, we don't have mosquitoes breeding in that community. Great. And you have persons who have farms. How would you say they could actually reduce the mosquito risk on the farm? The same principle applies. You go on the farm, sometimes the farmers would have their drums holding water, just in case maybe for them to wash their fruits and whatnot. It's just the same thing applies. You walk on the farm, you cover your drums. You keep your drums covered. Some farmers don't go on the farm every day, but when you do, that's when you would be accessing the water. So we're just saying the same thing applies anywhere on the farm that has something holding water, you get rid of it. Okay. And what final message would you like to leave for Sinclusions? The mosquito control is our responsibility. It doesn't take much for you to walk around your home and get rid of what is causing the problem. If you prevent mosquitoes from breeding, the likelihood is that you won't get dengue fever. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. No problem. Well, that's how we come to the end of Health Focus. On behalf of the entire production team, thanks for watching. Until next time.