St.maarten – Minister Emil Lee’s (Public Health) national mosquito elimination community program in the fight against the Zika-virus kicked off in Saunders Saturday a week ago and CPS program coordinator Gerald Davelaar says he was pleased with the results. Residents in the area were very cooperative with personnel from the ministry and with volunteers who were out in the field.
Approximately 100 premises were visited, of which 51 houses. One in every five houses was found positive with mosquito larvae. The House Index is 18 per cent and the World Health Organization threshold is around two per cent.
Minister of Public Health Emil Lee was also present and shared information while speaking with residents about how to eliminate mosquito breeding sites.
The community program calls for a close collaboration with the people and entails house to house visits with one-on-one education on elimination of mosquito breeding sites in and around the house.
The program also includes inspection of the surroundings of the house by vector controllers; assessment of the findings; set-up and monitoring of traps to study mosquito behavior and larvae development, and if needed targeted fogging of identified locations.
Mosquito elimination program off to a good start
