THE GOVERNMENT has established an inter-sectoral team to develop a comprehensive national surveillance and response plan to prevent a local outbreak of the West Nile Virus.
Speaking at the National Conference on West Nile Virus on Tuesday, Minister of Health, John Junor, said the action plan had about eight components, including active bird and active mosquito surveillance, equine (horse) surveillance, human surveillance and laboratory diagnosis.
But he added that for the programme to work, Government needed input from various private and public service stakeholders, such as wildlife protection and sporting organisations and members of the public.
They need to help with animal surveillance and to make efforts to reduce mosquito numbers and protect themselves from mosquito bites, he said.
The island remains on alert for the West Nile virus, which, the United States Centres for Disease Control (CDC) said, has infected more than 3,900 people and killed over 250 persons in the United States, up to January 15, 2003. Canada, one of the US's neighbours, has also been affected.
The West Nile Virus is transmitted by mosquitoes, which become infected, by having contact with birds carrying the virus. These infected birds can be among some 74 species of birds which migrate to Jamaica from the United States in the winter months.
After 10 to 14 days, the virus can be transmitted to another bird, person, or animal the mosquito has bitten.
Minister Junor said that the Government will be strengthening the national mosquito prevention and control programme, which seeks to reduce the number of mosquitoes through fogging and spraying.
"New regulations may be required to place emphasis on vector control and improve the level of response to preventing the breeding of mosquitoes, which can be quite a nuisance but also a serious threat to health," said Minister Junor, during the conference, held yesterday at the Medical Science Lecture Theatre at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI).
The Conference aimed to sensitise key persons in the public and private sector about how the virus is caused and how it can affect local humans and animals.
The conference, which was sponsored by the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), also sought to garner support for multi-sectoral collaboration in virus surveillance and to prevent infection.
Officials also wanted to identify local and international technical and financial support for surveillance efforts and strengthening the mosquito control programme.
The Ministry is now responding to concerns about whether mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the chemical effects by taking steps to check the level of resistance mosquitoes had to chemicals being used in the vector control programme, Junor said.
He added that the Government planned to improve the vector control programme with some focus on resistance management component.
It will also explore more environmentally controlled or biocontrol methods similar to the Ministry's use of tiki tiki fish (predaceous fish) to eat mosquito larvae.
The conference was also attended by officials from Canada and the United States, who gave the hundreds of local health, environmental and agricultural officials who turned up, an update on West Nile virus activities in those countries and answered questions about the effects on poultry, horse and human populations overseas.
In the meantime, the Ministry of Agriculture has been asking agricultural field officers, farmers, veterinarians and other persons to be on the lookout for sick and dead birds.
This virus, which showed up in the United States in 1999, has caused severe and fatal human illness in New York City and has since spread throughout the eastern half of that country.
Most infected persons do not get sick but there are instances where persons may have a sudden onset of low grade fever accompanied by malaise, nausea, eye pain, headache, muscle pain, rash and enlarged lymph nodes. These symptoms usually last about three to six days, said local health and agricultural officials.
The most serious manifestation of the virus is encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), which can kill people, horses and certain bird species.
Symptoms include headaches, high fever, disorientation, convulsions, muscle weakness, and paralysis.
There is no vaccine now available at this time.
The West Nile Virus is commonly found in Africa, West and Central Asia, and the Middle East.
