 Hello, I'm Diya De Law. This program brings you up to date with the services and improvements in St Lucia's health care. Today we discuss the Ministry of Health and Wellness's new Emergency Disaster Management Plan and the services the Department of Environmental Health provides. During the production of this program I learned that I've taken the nation's health and safety for granted and that I've grossly underestimated the planning and professional skills of the people responsible for the nation's disaster raininess and environmental health, vector and food safety. The people I interviewed wanted home to me that as individuals we have a responsibility to know more about our health service and where to go to find their services. This program also features interviews in Creole with Vanelle Neptune and I'll ask you questions, give you their answers and we'll learn together. Stay with me. Coming up we tell you about the meticulous planning of the Emergency Disaster Management System for man-made and national disasters. We take a closer look at the Environmental Health Division and why everyone handling food that is sold to the public must have a food handlers license and how they can apply. But first, there are seasonal hazards that we can prepare for like hurricanes and there are infestation situations that become immediate hazards like airborne viruses. Regardless it is certain that when disaster strikes we must know what to do. Here are some of the perceptions of St. Lucia's Emergency Disaster Management Plan which we will answer during this program. We'll talk about perceptions about the environment of health service later. Disaster efforts are recognized by the public but more government involvement at community levels would like to be seen. The Ministry of Health and Wellness disaster planning teams continues to work with organizations and non-governmental agencies but the ministry needs the community to be involved by attending community meetings and activities. Health services disrupted during disasters will be attended to when government departments dispatch their teams. When services are disrupted during disasters there are primary health care emergency response teams comprising of physicians, nurses, the Bureau of Health Education, environmental health and other external agencies. Tecla, how do you prepare for national disasters? You said national? Okay, national disasters. I take you to main hurricane storms. How do I prepare first by ensuring that my environment is clean and free from any debris that will affect my property or surroundings? And I mean ensure that all the drains and gutters are cleaned. Ensure that the guttering of the house is cleaned. I would also ensure if there are any branches that would cause any damage whether it be to clog drains or clog the gutterings they would be cut. In terms of food supply I would ensure that we have as much dry stuff as possible. Biscuits, saltfish, anything that does not need refrigerating, flour, sugar, rice, etc. In terms of medicines in the event anybody gets hurt I would ensure that medicines are stopped for example painkillers, the bandages, the plasters and any type of medication that one would use that does not require prescription but you can keep in a filing cabinet for any emergency purposes until you get some form of medical attention. I would ensure that those things are properly stored especially when our authorities give or sound the alarm that a natural disaster is approaching I would make sure that my stock is in stock and I have enough supplies that I can probably share with neighbors, families or friends. Why do you think sometimes that we wait until the very last minute to get you know the ball rolling on preparing? I would like to think that it's a cultural behavior where people always think that last minute they should prepare because sometimes I listen to you know the views of a lot of persons when it comes to natural disasters and they will tell you oh well Nimo said that a hurricane would come and we had no hurricane so it's like I'm not preparing because there's no hurricane but I believe that you should prepare whether there is a disaster or not because like you said a natural disaster is not something that you can plan is not something that could predict you can predict it is very unpredictable so we should always be prepared because you never know. I am sure in 2017 that nobody thought 90 percent of Dominica would have been wiped out and a hundred percent of Barbuda would be wiped out and St. Martin would be as devastated as it was because we have never seen such disasters in the Caribbean since David in 1979 so I believe as a people we should all be prepared no matter race color creed it doesn't matter whether you live in a low-lying area or on a mountain because a mountain of course there can be landslides just as the low-lying areas can experience flooding so we should always be prepared. Managing disasters relies on several factors and includes being aware of natural and man-made threats how to deal with them and knowing how other organizations can assist and then of course the nation needs to be informed. The new multi-hazard emergency disaster management plan has been developed to coordinate and collaborate its preparedness and responding to all hazards. Dr. Glensford Joseph tells us more. The Ministry of Health working in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization and the National Emergency Management Organization of Sintlutia would have in collaboration also with other agencies developed the health sector multi-hazard emergency disaster management plan in 2018. This plan has reached the points of awaiting approval. It is very important that the Ministry in collaboration with the relevant agencies develop this plan. This multi-hazard plan gives the Ministry an opportunity to better coordinate and collaborate its preparedness mitigation and response to all hazards whether natural or man-made. It is important to know that the Ministry has several subplans. Within each health facility there is a disaster plan. Within the Ministry of Health itself there are plans that deals with infectious diseases. There are plans that deals with hurricane but these plans are all event specific and as such this multi-hazard plan will be able to better coordinate all those plans so that irrespective of the event we can use the commonality of all those events and better manage our resources. It is important to mention that as we say disasters come in different forms. Natural disasters are those which arise as a result of natural phenomena. Example we have we know that we are preparing for the 2019-2020 hurricane season which begins June the 1st and ends 2020 November the 30th. Every year the Ministry in collaboration with multiple agencies prepare we ensure that all health facilities all departments within the Ministry of Health have plans and procedures in place ahead of time to respond in the event of a hurricane. With this multi-hazard plan we are not only going to be preparing for hurricane come the hurricane season but throughout the year disaster management is an all-year everyday business. Not only when you say hurricane is coming then we're going to be prepared we have to realize that some disasters like earthquake and sudden onset, little warning and so we must be prepared. We have infectious diseases example we would have had an incident of the measles of recent and it takes one case of measles for an example to have an outbreak. Now imagine you have about 20 or more of those cases on island. The negative impact on the individual level, the community and the nation as a whole. The health sector must be in a position to anticipate, have constant surveillance so that any threat is identified pretty early so that the mechanisms put in place which this multi-hazard plan would contribute to respond effectively to mitigate any impact of disaster on the nation. Now we have things like for instance you can go to be screened for these non-communicable chronic diseases right which we know diabetes hypertension are impacted by disaster the stress of disaster caused worsening of those illnesses so we need to ensure that you know we are not impacted by it and if you are you're encouraged to maintain your appointments at the wellness centers so that your primary health care physicians nurses or health care provider would ensure that your health is of optimum standard to withstand the effect of a disaster. And so doing persons who are having chronic non-communicable diseases we encourage you to always have at least two weeks to one month supply of your medication so that if the service or services of the health sector has been interrupted you at least have 72 hours or more of medical supply to take you through. While we talk of health the Department of Nutrition works in tandem with several departments and across other sectors like the Ministry of Education as they promote health. We recognize that the community is the backbone the community needs to be resilient and as such they need the relevant information because knowledge is power and we have the Borough of Health Education within the Ministry of Health and Wellness and they would share pertinent information as it relates to disasters. One of the things we are planning to move forward with is to further integrate such service as the Borough of Health Education offers to the community so that persons can be better sensitized as to the things they should do for the various types of disasters. I have a question for you now with the answer provided right after it followed by the Creole segment with Fanelle Neptune. Question. The multi-hazard emergency disaster management plan takes into consideration all areas of preparedness and areas of support for immediate and unforeseen disasters. True or false? Answer. True. The emergency disaster management plan provides the Ministry of Health and Wellness with opportunities to coordinate and collaborate all disasters. There are several subplans which are event specific so the Ministry collaborates with other agencies to manage all available resources. Question. After an emergency you can ask your neighbours for help while you wait for a national disaster team to look after your community. True or false? Answer. This question is partly true and partly false. There are teams within your community that are familiar with the national disaster plan for the nation. The community team may be able to assist with your urgent needs but they do work with the national disaster team on your behalf. Question. At the end of 2018, the Ministry of Health, the Organization for Health and Wellness, and the Organization for Disaster Management set this in NIMU. There have been some who developed plans to manage disaster sectors. This is a health sector multi-hazard emergency disaster management plan. The plan is to provide the Ministry of Health with opportunities to collaborate and coordinate with other agencies to coordinate and collaborate with other agencies to manage disaster sectors. The coordination of the disaster team, Dr. Glenn Swaad-Joseph Diki, Dr. Joseph Dickey, the Department of Ministry of Health has implemented a system of the system in addition to a disease called cyclone. Dr. Joseph Dickey is an important minister of the Ministry of Health. He is a simple person who has a common sense of disease and is responsible for his health. He is also a member of the Bureau of Health Education As well as multi-hazard emergency disaster management law, the Ministry of Health is also responsible for the disaster money and natural A. We. Be. Know. We post last evening. The Emergency Disaster Management Plan has recently been reviewed. One of the major improvements will be the Emergency Operations Centers, which will provide wonder communications and telecommunication systems should telephone lines be disconnected during emergencies. Jacqueline February outlines the improvements of the Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan. The disaster management plan has recently been reviewed. We met as an agency and our stakeholders as well met with us to review the plan. We are in the process of going through the implementation plan, one of which is the setup of Emergency Operations Centers. Before the Ministry operated with one Emergency Operations Center, which was based in the north, right now we are receiving funds or we have received funds to set up two Emergency Centers. So they will be fully equipped one in the north and one in the south. Also, we will be receiving funds to establish the Ministry's communication system. The communication system would come into effect when there is, particularly for disasters. The phone lines are down and there is no means of communication. So with the Emergency Communication System, we would set up base systems and transmitters in various parts of the island in order to allow us to communicate with our original health officers when there is a disaster. Question, how many disaster operations centers are there in St Lucia? One or two? Answer, two. There are two disaster operations centers in St Lucia. One in the north and one in the south. Would you know where to contact shortly before a disaster if you felt you weren't prepared or after a disaster when you urgently need help? This question came to mind as one we don't think about until we are in need of the answer. Within your community, organizations exist that can relay your need to national organizations. Dr Joseph explains. Because disaster is more decentralized with the health facilities wellness centers, we have the physician, nurses and they are integrated into what is called the community disaster or the word, let me use the term district disaster committee that is under the umbrella of NEMO the National Emergency Management Organization. At that district level the regional health teams are integrated into those committees. So if there is challenges at that level, they communicate with the health personnel there, they can also communicate through the district committees which is under the umbrella of NEMO and as such all relevant information would be channeled up through NEMO to health. Because of the structure in terms of a major incident or event where there is significant disruption of property the environment and possible loss of lives with injuries there is activation of only the health sector plan but the national plan of which this health sector plan forms a part it's part of NEMO. So once such an activation has been made then the relevant personnel would respond to the emergency operating center that is you have the national emergency operating center at NEMO but also within the health sector there is the health emergency operating center. So while some personnel from the ministry of health would be at NEMO you have another set of persons going to be operating at the health emergency operating center lasing with the various communities receiving information and as such you have the two way communication well it's going to be multiple levels of communication to ensure the safety of these persons. Question How much medication should you save in the event of a disaster? A. 72 hour supply B. 2 week supply C. 1 month supply Answer C. 1 month supply Ideally you should have at least 1 month supply of medicine saved but the minimum should be a 72 hour supply that's 3 days. When we come back we talk to officers in the environmental health unit but first here's the Creole segment with Vanelle Nettie. Ministry 30 received a plan to manage the disaster emergency disaster management plan and after that the government will be able to establish a center for emergency emergency operation centers but the ministry will not be able to do that. Ministry 30 also received a plan to establish a system for telecommunication communication telecommunication system for the disaster. Ministry 30 will be able to manage the disaster by connecting telephone Emergency operation centers will now establish A. B. D. We're POSTNASA D Environmental Health is a major factor in health and wellness. Within the Department of Environmental Health there are 3 key units specialists who monitor the quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink and use, and international diseases, many of which have been eradicated from our shores. But how aware are you of the Department's services and responsibilities, and would you know where to go to with your environmental health issues? Stay with me to find out. Remember this program also features information in CREAL and provides questions and their answers to keep you on the right track. This program in this series discusses some of the quick conceptions within our health care. For example, we see many people selling food at various places around the island, and we may think, I know this person, but when serving food, each food handler requires a food handler certificate which they can acquire at the Environmental Health Division, and it's free. More on this later. But for now, imagine someone handling food, then going to the washroom, and not washing their hands properly, or not washing their hands at all, before returning to touch the very food that they are preparing for you. There are some more perceptions, but stay with us as we address these concerns. Perceptions. It's okay for individuals to prepare food at home and to sell to the public without seeking the food licence. Every person handling food requires a food handler licence, and slaughter and offer meat for sale without prior inspection or a food licence. A food handler licence is required. Think about the consequences of meat is not inspected. I'm sure you know the saying, never judge a book by its cover. The public is not adequately aware of the department's regulatory responsibilities. This may be true, but individuals can seek knowledge and ask questions. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is responsible for fogging. Fogging for mosquitos should be a shared responsibility between the Ministry of Health and Wellness and the public. So Lucia's Environmental Health Mission is to protect human health and environment through the effective delivery of environmental health services. To carry out this mission, environmental service units with officers who are professionally trained and specialised and, dare I say, remain humble in the delivery of their skills. Environmental health units have to be on their guard 24-7. The areas of surveillance is tricky because although it affects health, in some cases livelihoods are affected. For example, vendors selling coconut water and canages on their own recycling bottles, food from home kitchens transported to vehicle booths and trucks. I asked the head of the Department of Environmental Health, Parker Ragginen, why environmental health was important. Environmental health is indeed very important in terms of preventing public health risk. The main objective of environmental health is really to protect the public and citizens against risk to public health and safety. And this is done primarily through collaboration with key agencies and organisations in terms of working together in meeting some of the objectives of health and wellbeing and as well as environmental sustainability. This is done through a number of guiding principles that would include collaboration with key partners and agencies. It is done by looking at data in order to ensure that planning is done adequately because in St. Lucia we have a number of environmental risks that are present and therefore we need to have adequate planning in place to be able to rectify and deal with some of the environmental problems. Environmental health division has a number of key programme areas. Among them we have our vector control programme, our food safety programme, our water and wastewater programme, our pot health surveillance programme and community mobilisation, community health, occupational health and safety and wellbeing. Some of these programmes are very, very, very important programmes. For example, the pot health surveillance programme. It is a programme that is implemented at our points of entry in St. Lucia, primarily to put systems in place in order to have surveillance for public health emergencies. This would include among other things the entry of infectious diseases into the island and therefore our pot health officers are stationed at key points of entry in order to ensure that our country is protected against introduction of new infectious agents into the country. The pot health surveillance programme also is responsible for ensuring that nationals as well as visitors to St. Lucia are protected against the risk of international threats to public health. Throughout the world we have on a year to year basis new and emerging diseases. Some of them are life threatening as well and many a times our citizens express concerns and in 2014 for example there were major concerns with regard to the introduction of the Ebola virus into St. Lucia and therefore a lot of questions were being asked as to what systems the St. Lucia have in place in terms of monitoring at the ports, both in terms of incoming passengers and outgoing passengers. There are no full proof pot health surveillance programme however you need to have systems in place to be able to have advanced surveillance in terms of where passengers are coming from, where travellers are coming from to your country. St. Lucia is heavily based, our economy is heavily based on tourism and therefore when we look at new markets we have to be very very concerned about what it is that comes into the country depending on the country that visitors are coming from. We have the occupational health and safety and workers health programme and today there are major concerns in many workplaces with regard to air quality and as well as the issue of ergonomics, the safety of equipment and therefore there are a number of hazards that are present in a number of working environments. What we find in St. Lucia is that many a times the places that people work, the offices they work were not necessarily built for office space, it was probably built with other intentions in mind and what you have is that these buildings are retrofitted for people to inhabit and they may not necessarily meet all the requirements for worker safety and health and as a result what we are finding is that the issue of air quality is a big concern, the issue of mould growth in many environments, working environments are also critical and our institutional hygiene and occupation of safety programme deals with some of the issues in terms of how workplaces can become safer for the occupants thereof. The other programmes such as food safety and water and wastewater programme, vector management programme are ongoing programmes that has very, very key deliverables and are essentially critical to ensuring the safety of our population in terms of protection against vector bond diseases as well as protection against food bond diseases and to ensuring that there is general safety in the environment that we occupy. We have been able to accrue some major achievements. Before 2005, St Lucia did not have a Port Health surveillance programme but now we have a fully activated Port Health surveillance programme and I think that is very, very important because in 2007 St Lucia signed on to an international document. It's actually an international legal instrument and it's called International Regulations of 2005 and it therefore means that as part of that international instrument countries are mandated to ensure that there is capacity at the points of entry. In 2004 in St Lucia actually designated two ports of entry as international designated points of entry for St Lucia. So it means that if you have an aircraft coming to St Lucia and you have sick people on board, you can direct that aircraft to one airport where you would have the capacity in place to be able to manage an outbreak of a disease on an aircraft. Similarly for sea vessels, the Cassuris seaport has been designated as a designated point of entry for international health purposes. So it doesn't matter to what port a vessel may be coming into St Lucia, you can direct a vessel with sick people on board to the Cassuris seaport and there you'd be able to provide the necessary capacity in terms of managing an outbreak on board. And believe you me, many times in this island we find that there are instances of outbreaks on both our vessels at sea as well as our aircrafts. And therefore I think this is a major achievement and we need to continue to build on that program. We've also been able on a year-by-year basis for the last five years or so to publish a list of licensed eating establishments. It therefore means that our St Lucia public can make informed decision as to where to purchase food to consume because a list of licensed food establishment is published in the major newspapers and in the Gazette on a yearly basis. Over the last two years we have started a training and sensitization program with our food handlers. There are many people who go into food handling without the necessary knowledge of their impact on the food business. And what we have done is as part of obtaining a health certificate which is a basic requirement by law for any food handler that is they need to have a food handler certificate. And this is done by visiting a medical practitioner doing certain lab tests and ensuring that you are free from infectious agents that can be transmitted through foods. We have included now a training component to that. So it means that any existing food handler or any person desiring to enter into the food industry can now come in and twice a week at our offices in Bordeaux, Orange, in Souffre and Viewfort. We provide training in basic food hygiene principles. It is called the five keys to food safety and it gives you some important information as to the dos and don'ts in food safety and how you can basically prevent the transmission of organisms to food that would cause foodborne diseases. We've also been able to enhance our collaboration with a number of key partners in terms of our community mobilization and sensitization programs, especially in the area of vector control. St. Lucia have seen in the recent past a number of outbreaks of vectorborne diseases. In 2012 we had a dengue fever outbreak. In 2014 we had a chicken gunia outbreak. In 2016 we had a Zika virus outbreak. They all are transmitted by the same mosquito, which is the Adiz-Egypti mosquito. As part of our efforts in terms of controlling the spread of mosquito-borne diseases and vector-borne diseases as a whole, we've strengthened our linkages with a number of community partners, solid waste management authority, with the physical planning unit, with Ministry of Agriculture, as well as working with a number of community groups in many of the communities. We have actually strengthened a lot of our linkages with the different constituency councils in many of the constituencies, thereby getting support in terms of our vector control program, in terms of ensuring that basic sanitation is practiced and we want to continue to work with these communities in terms of ensuring that there is sustainable management for vectors. Question. Port health surveillance is responsible for ensuring that nationals and visitors are protected against the risk of international threats to public health. True or false? Answer, true. Advanced surveillance through the Port Health Surveillance Programme made international use in May 2019 when a cruise ship was quarantined at the Castries Harbour due to a reported case of measles. Saint Lucia Health officials supplied 100 doses of vaccine to the ship. It takes one case of measles to cause an outbreak. Have you stopped to think about what could have happened if our health service did not conform to international health standards? Question. If a person handles food that they sell to the public, they must acquire a food handler certificate. True or false? Answer, true. Every person who handles food and sells it to others must have a food handler certificate. The Environmental Health Food Safety Unit can assist, and it's free. Other sectors such as the Department of Health, the Department of Health for the Department of Health, and the Environmental Health Department. The Department of Health is to protect the people and the residents of the Department of Health by providing food services to the residents. The Chief Officer of the Department of Health, Mr. Pakaranganan, speaks about the needs of the residents of the Department of Health. We have been able to provide services for management of migraines and what? We have been able to transmit diseases. We have been able to provide services to the residents of the Department of Health. We have to look at how we can help people to stay. And that's why all the development we've done here has brought a lot of departments for us to look at. We also have the provision to have water and to make sure that we don't overcrowd the building. So we have a lot of programs to look at. We have programs to look at how we can help people to look at the airport and the airport so that we can observe the people who are coming here so that we can try to treat the sick and treat the sick by building a plane. We also have programs to look at how we can help people to work so that we can be exposed to different kinds of people who are sick. We also have mold growth. We also have mold plastic. We also have conditions to look at how we can work well, how we can connect, how we can exchange. We also have whole safety plastic. So we also have programs to look at. We also have programs to look at water quality water that we can use. We also have water that we can buy so that we can make sure that we don't overcrowd the building so that we don't get sick. We also have a place for people who want to work to sell food and to prepare food for people. We also have a program to look at how we can treat the sick so that we can treat the sick and treat the sick so that we can be exposed to different kinds of people. We also have a health card. We also have a health card for doctors so that we can test the sick so that we don't get sick or get transmitted to the sick. What we also do is we have a program to educate people so that they don't get sick because they don't have to prepare food so that we can treat the sick. We also have an anti-program so that we can work with the sick so that we can work with the council and the government department to look at the sick people here because we have sick people here who work with the government and the world to ensure that we come together and work together to help us to solve the problems we face with the sick. We also have a program to support the sick so that every year we can help with the newspaper and social media like the one available on Facebook. There are different establishments here to help the worker get a chance to eat. If you want to go to a health department, you can go to the health department, or you can go to a choice department, or you can go to a place where you can eat there. So it's a good thing for us. Do you work in the department to save money? It's to ensure that you can save money. If you want to go to a place where you can eat there, you can go to a place where you can eat there. Keep watching as you'll be allowed to know the amount of food that was taken off the market and condemned as unfit for human consumption by the Environmental Health Division. But I'm pretty sure you know that food establishments must display public health licenses within a conspicuous area in their establishment. We might have known, but could you pay attention? Think of the repercussions. Here's my starting question to you, its head only here. The main objective of the food safety unit is to reduce the risk of foodborne illness and to ensure that the population is not exposed to unwholesome foods. The mandate of this programme, more or less, is enshrined in the Public Health Act. The Public Health Act makes provision for various pieces of regulation. There are three pieces of regulation that governs the work of the food safety programme. The services provided within the programme are in line with the regulations, as mentioned. Registration of food handlers is one of the services that we provide in terms of renewing of health cards and persons that are applying for health certificates. The programme also ensures that there is a level of training and awareness that is done in terms of food handlers in basic food safety training. That programme has been implemented to ensure that persons that are coming in that they have knowledge in the area of food safety when they are getting the health certificates. Persons who are coming for renewal of public health licenses as well need to apply. They will get the inspections done once they apply within this programme area. For new establishments, when they are applying, that's another service that is provided. When new establishments apply, the applications are reviewed. Under this programme, once they meet the requirements, they are able to be licensed. Basically, the appraisal of plans for food establishments, all of that is done within this programme, keeping with the mandate that is established under the Public Health Act. Butchers as well, if they require inspection for animals that have been slaughtered, that is done under this programme as well. In the food safety programme, recently, as I mentioned, one of the areas that we have improved on is to ensure that persons that are acquiring health certificates that they are just not getting a health certificate, that as part of obtaining a health certificate, they get a measure of training. We have also been a lot more active in terms of the... in the programme, in terms of recalls. There are very frequent recalls. The Ministry of Health and St. Lucia by extension is part of the InfoSAN, which is actually the International Authorities International Food Safety Authorities Network, and we get early alerts as to foods that are on the market in any country. And we are able to work with the importers and the large supermarket to determine whether this food is on the market in St. Lucia and if it is, we are able to remove these products as well on a timely manner. So these are some of the improvements that we have made in the programme over the years. We are also able to thoroughly go through plans that have been submitted upon construction. Once those establishments have been constructed, we are able to work through them to ensure compliance. That is something that we ensure before they operate. So we have also been in this programme in the Department of Health and Wellness every year they have been able, bi-annually they have been able to print a list of gazetted or full establishments published in the various papers to guide the public as to the places that are licensed when they are out. Question. The Food Safety Unit is responsible for approving plans for mass events and officers attend events while in progress. True or false? Answer. It's true. In the Department of Health and Wellness, the Food Safety Unit is responsible for managing health and wellness. The objective of this programme is to ensure that health and wellness is as good as possible. It is also possible to assist those in need to cut their waste for people who are sick. Officers of Health and Wellness are responsible for managing health and wellness, and the Food Safety Unit The people who are exposed to the disease are not allowed to eat. Because of the law of Public Health Act, There are three laws regarding access to food safety regulations. Bacrease regulations, such as the government of the coffee shop, and the government of the bushy country. All of these are programs. These programs are very important to ensure that the people in the village, the people in the village, the people in the village, and the people in the village are able to do the work. These programs are about the inspector who works in these programs. You can go and visit the people in the village who work in these programs. You can buy a restaurant. You can't just do the work in the coffee shop. You can store the coffee, you can sell the coffee, you can do the work in the coffee shop. You can do the work in the coffee shop. You can do the work in the sanitary conditions. S about program food safety. There is an inspector who can visit these magical places. You can also visit these magical places by the public. A. We. B. No. We can do this. Did you know that the water and sewage company, USCO, is the only agency that supplies pipeable, portable water, and they are the main agencies of the municipal sewage services? Of course you do. But you may have taken for granted that the companies of water supplies are tested by the Ministry of Health and Wellness' Environmental Health Unit. Charles Saint-Fermain is the acting assistant chief of health environmental officer and she explains here the responsibility of the water and waste water unit. The unit is called the Water and Waste Water Unit within the Environmental Health Division. We are responsible for a number of things. Namely, plan development. What we do in that, we assess every category of development on island. We monitor water, portable water, the potability of water and we do it by what we call residual chlorine where a reagent is added to a sample of the water and then to test if it's the level of chlorine in there. We monitor and regulate, license rather, all water bottling plants and I think on island we have five of them so all these bottling plants are regulated, monitored, inspected and regulated. We also monitor the appliances that can be water. So this would be what we call the water trucks on island, all these appliances. All we do with these trucks, upon inspection, in addition to doing the residual chlorine, we do what is called the bacterial, bacteriological analysis and they have a number of parameters where we need to conform to. So before the initial inspection, the applicant needs to submit a sample, well the results of the sample of the water within that appliance. I want the public to know that both bottled water and the water through their distribution line is safe to consume because we do a level of testing on the water going through the distribution line so persons should not just use the water for domestic purposes but they can, if it's to their own liking, filter it further, filter it but the water is safe to drink because we, as our mandate is to regulate and test the water. Question. Waste and wastewater unit officers constantly adapt to ensure they operate within safe industry environmental standards. True or false? Answer. Yes, it's true. Water and wastewater unit officers constantly adapt to ensure they operate within safe industry environmental standards. One of the units of the Department for Waste and Waste is the Waste and Waste Department, which is responsible for the investigation of the entire plant development sector. Assistant Chef Officer Tia Viwanma, Madam, Sheriffs and Rumin explain the whole department, let me talk about the plant development and how it works. I want to say that as inspect, assess, two categories, plant development, we construct the plant. So we have the plant where we started, we have the residential plant, we have the commercial plant, we have the legal plant, we have the apartment, we have the plant, we have the recreation plant, so two categories, plant development, plant waste, we have the commercial plant, we have the recombination plant, a year ago, a year ago, I think the department, or probably the public, the public those who take part in this project are from Yoka and Kulot, but you have to know, for the department, other level for professionalism, they will specialize in different bagai. So, when the environment changes, we have the capacity to respond to these different changes that come from the environment. So, for me, it's a major achievement for the department. So, when the bagai comes, we can change, we have different department of environmental health. So, we have the capacity to respond to these changes. As to the development, residential and commercial, we have the capacity to respond to these changes that come from the environment. So, when the bagai comes, we have the capacity to respond to these changes that come from the environment. The Department of Environmental Health is responsible for providing all the vector control services nationally and collaborates with the Bureau of Health Education in the dissemination of vector control information to vulnerable communities. The lead on vector management, Charlotte Charles, explains. What we do is, we try to reduce the vector population on Ireland. So, currently, the vectors of public health significance that we have on Ireland are mosquitoes and rats. Mosquitoes have the potential to spread dengue fever, chicken, guinea, zika, and we've done quite a bit of publicity on it. We also focus on controlling the rodent population on the island as well, and as everybody knows, while most persons should know that rats have the potential to spread a vector spiral system. So, what we do is, we undertake a number of activities geared towards the reduction of these vector populations. So, take, for instance, the mosquito population. It would have officers, vector control officers, going around in different communities carrying out house-to-house inspections for active and potential mosquito breeding sites. So, they would go into a yard, introduce themselves, do these inspections, try to identify these breeding grounds, and also to do some treatment as well. They would also provide the householder with some education in terms of what it is that they should look for, if there are seen mosquitoes, where should they inspect, and give them just some basic information as to how to carry out an inspection. They would also participate in some fogging operations as well, and fogging operations, it is aimed at destroying the mosquito at the adult stage. Many, in many instances, we get persons calling our department and asking for food because they see mosquitoes around them. But one of the things that we try to educate persons about is that the fogging operations, it's not going to, it's not a solve all. It's not going to just get rid of the problem for you immediately, unless you get rid of the source. So, hence the reason we try to do as much education and as much source reduction as possible so that we can reduce that population. We would also participate in a lot of cleanup activities. We've gone into communities. We have done assessments. We've realized that, hey, there are issues with rats, issues with mosquitoes, burq is disposed, and we've organized quite a bit of cleanup campaigns over the years to reduce the source of these mosquitoes as well as rats as well. And of course, we would do some baiting, especially in the city of Cassius, and I know there is a huge concern for most of our secretion public, the issue of rats because we go to our city and we see rats running around. So we do quite a bit of baiting. But of course, there are quite a bit of environmental concerns which need to be addressed with the baiting. So in certain communities, we have seen quite a bit of improvement. Let's say if we have a cleanup campaign, you would see improvements. But our biggest issue is making it sustainable because having a cleanup campaign in a community is not a cure or unless you can get buying from the community persons could understand why is it that we're having a cleanup campaign and what brought us to that point. So it's not a cure or we need to have some level of sustainability that after a cleanup campaign is done, for instance, that persons understand, hey, we can continue our bad habits because we're going to take us right back to the same place. So we have communities where we've definitely seen some level of improvement and some others are a little more difficult to work with, but we'll continue working with them. The most crippling perception that the public has is that everything has to be done by the department. So for instance, they would know that there are mosquitoes around. Instead of taking the initiative and going out to do an inspection or just looking there, look for water holding containers, make sure that the septic tank isn't damaged, that the drums are properly covered, containers are properly covered. They have a tendency to call our department and say, hey, can you come and check? So there's this dependency that the department has to do everything for them. If there's a drain that is blocked, it's maybe just adjacent to their house, instead of maybe the community members coming together and saying, hey, this is a problem that's trying to do, see if we can clean it up or something, and maybe take that day where you will put me or something like that and you just come and you clean the drain and you take responsibility for your community, it doesn't happen. And this, I think, is the biggest misconception. This is the biggest issue that we have, just this dependency and not persons opening to take responsibility for their communities and for their households. In terms of what we really like to live with the public is the fact that we need to take that responsibility for our communities, for ourselves. Before you call the department, do a little research if you see mosquitoes around. Look for your water holding containers, look for your sources of reading before you jump the gun, essentially, and make that company no request that we come in to do the inspection. Of course, we're always willing, we're always happy to give persons knowledge to spread what we know. But of course, we need to be able to have some level of personal responsibility for our homes and our environments. Question. Rats spread leptosporosis. The disease can be caught by humans through contact with rat or cattle urine. True or false? Answer, true. Wheel's disease is a form of bacterial infection also known as leptosporosis that is carried by animals most commonly in rats and cattle. It can be caught by humans through contact with rat or cattle urine, most commonly occurring through contaminated fresh water. The department also has the responsibility to provide a service that can be used for the three times as much as it can be used for the first time in a year. Officers of the department, for vector control, MAMSL Charlotte Charles, say that it is important that it is necessary to provide a service that can be used for the first time in a year. Here are the reasons why leptosporosis is an important type of disease. We know that with this treatment there are least 24 Canadians in the country, so it is very important that there are many programmes in this area, and that can be used for the women We have a lot of children, we have a lot of sick people, we have a lot of doctors and so on. But we have a lot of chances to go to school, we have a lot of education and so on. We have a lot of places to clean, and we have a lot of success in school. We have a lot of people who have a lot of difficulties. But we have to continue to have a good experience. A common problem is that you need vector control. A perfect way to control and treat that for my great work is to cross the boundary of a human. A sec, B to come in a set list, C, Yon, B, D. We cross the boundary to come in a set list. There are other programs in this series highlighting the services and achievements in St. Lucia's healthcare We'll tell you more about the strategists and administrators who come together to provide international standard services. The contact details for the services mentioned in this program follows. See you next time where we explore our health service. Goodbye.