Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter

Reckless and indiscriminate disposal of commercial and residential garbage has largely contributed to what officials from the Ministry of Health have warned is a dangerously high level of rat infestation across the island.

Sherine Huntley, manager of the Vector Control Programme at the Ministry of Health, told The Gleaner that the island has too many rats.

"From surveys we have conducted, we recognise that there was an alarming amount of rats across the island ... particularly in our urban centres," Ms. Huntley explained.

She said high infestation levels are usually a precursor to an outbreak of rodent-borne diseases such as leptospirosis, which "is endemic in various population groups".

The problem is being compounded by the inability of the island's waste management agency to remove garbage quickly.

Facing severe difficulties

Errol Greene, executive director of the NSWMA, confessed that the garbage company is facing severe difficulties in some parishes, namely Kingston, Clarendon, St. Ann, St. Catherine and St. Thomas.

He cited "frequent breakdowns" of vehicles which, he said, are preventing them from maintaining their garbage collection schedules.

"We are doing the best we can, but it is not where we want to be," he lamented.

Additionally, Mr. Greene also stressed that "the habit of some of our people who indiscriminately dump their garbage" is also frustrating the efforts of his administration to fulfil its mandate.

Data compiled by the Surveillance Unit at the Ministry of Health revealed that there was a leptospirosis outbreak late last year. Statistics showed that there were 328 laboratory confirmed cases of leptospirosis out of a reported 921 suspected cases last year.

For the period January to March 2006, there were 175 reported cases. Laboratory results were obtained for 134 of the cases, with 29 cases being confirmed as positive.

In addition to leptospirosis, rats also transmit a form of meningitis known as eosinophilic meningitis.

Not usually fatal

While the disease is not usually fatal, deaths have occurred, particularly in young children.

A few years ago a post-mortem revealed that a 14-month-old boy, who lived in Kingston, died from the disease.

Additionally, in May 2000, 12 Spring Breakers who visited Jamaica from the United States contracted the disease after returning home. Nine of them had to be hospitalised.

The source of the Spring Breakers' infection was traced to a vegetable salad they had eaten at a local restaurant.

Shortly afterwards, experts concluded that the causative agent was the roundworm or nematode scientifically called Angiostrongylus cantonensis, which in its adult stage, lives in rats and humans and is commonly known as the rat lungworm.

A team of researchers from the University of the West Indies, the Ministry of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were responsible for conducting the investigation, which proved that the parasite nematode which causes eosinophilic meningitis was present in rats and snails in Jamaica.

The findings suggested that eosinophilic meningitis, due to Angiostrongylus cantonensis, may be an emerging threat to health in Jamaica.

Ms. Huntley, who is a medical entomologist, revealed that the ministry is currently on the final leg of a rodent control programme which was implemented in select communities across the island. The programme, which began in January, is being implemented in the south-east region, which includes St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Thomas.

According to Ms. Huntley, the programme has already yielded much fruit, as 1,000 dead rats were collected from just two communities in Portland that were treated with rodenticide.

She added that similar numbers were also collected from other parishes. "From the surveys that we conducted under the CHASE-funded programme we found that a major problem that we encountered in areas that we found high infestation was the mismanagement of solid waste".

She added: "Illegal dumping, improper disposal of garbage by householders and the commercial sector contributed to this mismanagement."