Petrina Francis, Staff Reporter

This material was taken from a drain by a tractor in Naggo Head, Portmore, St. Catherine, yesterday, as the authorities move to clean targeted areas in a bid to contain the malaria outbreak affecting parts of Kingston and St. Catherine. - Photo by Brian Carless

The reassignment of some medical technologists to deal with the growing number of malaria cases will result in a delay in the time regular patients would take to get other results, according to Leeford Bennett, chief union delegate for medical technologists.

"Timely reporting (in other areas of health) is affected because staff have to be drawn from other areas," Mr. Bennett told The Gleaner yesterday.

"Sooner or later we will have backlogs in other areas," he added.

There is a shortage of medical technologists across the island. Currently, there are about 108 medical technologists and the system would become efficient when there are 200.

Mr. Bennett told The Gleaner earlier this year that as a result of the shortage some patients had to wait about six months to get a Pap smear result.

Meanwhile, in a bid to contain the spread of malaria, Local Government Minister, Dean Peart, has ordered a clean-up of four constituencies in the Corporate Area.

They are Central Kingston, West Kingston, South St. Andrew and South West St. Andrew.

"Yuh nuh si how di place stink and dutty?" asked Mr. Peart, when quizzed on why these areas were being cleaned.

"The damn place cannot stay like that," he added.

Major clean-up fund

Mr. Peart said the funds to clean the area came from the more than $600 million that was approved by Cabinet to conduct a major clean-up of the island.

Meanwhile, Opposition Spokesman on Health, Dr. Ken Baugh, said he was dissatisfied with the Government's treatment of the malaria outbreak.

According to him, the Government was deficient in assessing the situation and, as such, did not make adequate provisions to deal with the high number of malaria cases.

While agreeing that special emphasis should be placed on the affected areas of Kingston and St. Catherine, Dr. Baugh emphasised that the surveillance and management system should be extended islandwide, to prevent a further spread of the life-threatening disease.

Meanwhile, the St. James Parish Council has moved to prevent a spread of malaria in the parish.

Garfield Ustanny, programme coordinator for the council, told The Gleaner yesterday that $600,000 was allocated to the health department in September and another $1.6 million on Monday.

The $1.6 million, he said, would go towards the vector control programme, which will include spraying and fogging of areas in the parish, while $600,000 will go towards the cleaning of a drain in Railway Lane, a major area for mosquito breeding in the parish.