Tag: epidemic

Authorities warn of imminent fruit fly epidemic

The agriculture ministry has warned of an imminent fruit fly epidemic that could contaminate fruits grown in the Maldives.

Fruit flies have been found in mangoes and water apples from the island of Feevah in Shaviyani atoll, the ministry revealed today.

“On some occasions, 90 to 100 percent of the harvest has been destroyed because of fruit flies,” said the agricultural ministry.

“Therefore, it is necessary to contain the fruit flies from Feevah and prevent it from spreading to other agricultural islands.”

Agriculture contributes to around six percent of GDP. However, some islands rely solely on income from farming.

A fruit fly epidemic could cause widespread damage to the local agricultural industry, the ministry said, and advised exercising caution before consuming fruits from Feevah.

While fruit flies do not cause any harm to humans even if contaminated fruits are consumed, the ministry advised soaking fruits from Feevah in warm water for 60 minutes to prevent the flies from spreading.

The ministry explained that the “oriental fruit flies” found on Feevah poses a threat to all types of fruits and vegetables, including mangoes, watermelons, peaches and tomatoes.

Fruit flies lay their eggs inside the fruits and vegetables by injecting its spine. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae eats the fruit from the inside out.

Contaminated fruits will appear over-ripe with large black spots. Holes will also be visible on the surface of the contaminated fruit.

The ministry also urged the public to report any signs of fruit flies in agricultural products.

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Health Protection Agency warns of cold and conjunctivitis outbreak

The Health Protection Agency has warned of a potential cold and conjunctivitis epidemic in the country, local media has reported.

Vnews reported that agency as urging anyone displaying flu-like symptoms to contact a doctor as well as staying away from public areas.

The capital city Malé is one of the world’s most densely populated islands at around 18,000 people per square kilometer.

The agency warned those with symptoms not to touch their eyes, as this causes the infection to spread more easily.

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Dengue task force to hand control to Health Ministry as outbreak calms

The Ministry of Health is expected to once again take the reins of the national response to a dengue fever outbreak linked to the deaths of eight Maldivians this year, after last week handing control of the focus to a task force appointed to bring island management of the disease under a single body.

A spokesperson for the task force, which has attempted to combine the efforts of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), government ministries and NGOs, said the body expected its work to be “wound down” today, with the Ministry of Health once again taking control of efforts after infection rates were said to have fallen.

The task force had initially been budgeted to operate from within the social centre at Maafanu School in Male’ for seven days. However, despite initial optimism that the outbreak – which has been labelled by the government as an “epidemic” – would be under control in this time, doubts arose later during last week about the likelihood of meeting such a deadline.

Speaking to Minivan News today, a media spokesperson for the task force said it once again expected management of the virus outbreak to revert back to the Health Ministry, after having itself overcome a number of difficulties allegedly including collaborating with recently established local councils.

“We are seeing the number of confirmed cases dropping once again and I expect we will be winding up our work today,” the spokesperson added. The spokesperson claimed that Male’s Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) was itself now returning to normal operations after adapting several wards and surgeries specifically to coping with dengue during the outbreak.

On Thursday (July 7), several Male’-based hospitals including IGMH said that although they were busy continuing to deal with a significant numbers of patients suspected of contracting the virus, the situation was said to be under “control” by some senior management staff.

Deputy Education Minister Dr Abdulla Nazeer, who has spoken on behalf of the taskforce created by President Mohamed Nasheed to combat the outbreak, said he was “glad to say the situation is under control and we are winding up our work and will transfer it to the Health Ministry.”
During its work the taskforce had identified several factors that contributed to the difficulty of managing dengue outbreaks, he noted.
“Number one is a lack of proper communication between the Health Ministry and local councils,” he said. “The second was that they did not have the capacity to resolve the issues.”
“Councillors on some islands thought it was not in their mandate to follow the requests of the task force,” he added. “The MNDF and local authorities had to intervene, and the councillors realised it was a matter of national safety.”

Government view

In addressing the work undertaken as part of a collaborative approach to disease control , Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair claimed that the initiative’s work in identifying and focusing on regional and island prevention measures would ensure the government was better prepared in the future for similar outbreaks.

“The government’s main focus has remained targeting mosquito breeding grounds, particularly areas such lakes and stagnant water collections,” he said. “However, we have also been working on community focal points where we have focused many types of control measures.”

Zuhair claimed these control measures had been focused specifically on trying to put more emphasis on focusing on island communities to identify possible difficulties with dengue, despite reports from the dengue task force of initial coordination problems in working with the local councillors.

A spokesperson for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press over its views of the government’s response in dealing with the dengue epidemic” of recent weeks.

Yet over the course of last week DRP Spokerson Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef, reiterated his belief to the press that the government had “bungled” their response to trying to control dengue fever. Shareef added that although the DRP welcomed and would cooperate with the government in efforts to try and limit the spread of the virus, he said that authorities had acted too slowly in trying to deal with the outbreak.

“From what we have seen the government is just not doing enough. We don’t believe they have been willfully negligent, but there has been negligence in their approach [to dengue outbreak],” he claimed. “They have not responded fast enough, which could be inexperience on their part. But I think this will be a wake-up call for them to change policy in dealing with these type of situations.”

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Dengue hospital situation “stable”, despite high patient demand

Hospitals in the capital have said they continue to screen significant numbers of patients for dengue fever, yet claim that the situation remains “stable” as authorities raise fears that an ongoing outbreak of the virus may be more persistent than originally thought.

As officials today confirmed that a 41 year old man from Addu Atoll had become the eighth person to have died during the latest dengue outbreak, health care representatives in the capital have said that they remain “busy” dealing with cases and had not yet seen significant declines in patients coming through their doors suspected of contracting the virus.

After declaring this week that the current outbreak of the virus around Male’ and several islands was being treated as an “epidemic”, the government has since established a task force to try and coordinate its ministries, the military and NGOs in preventing further spreads of dengue. The task force was originally budgeted to run for seven days, by which time the situation was expected to be under control.

However, upon admitting yesterday that the suspected number of dengue cases in the country had slightly risen after a perceived fall in infection rates earlier during the week, a media spokesperson for the task force suggested that the operations were now likely to run beyond the original seven day time-frame.

Meanwhile, for hospitals on the front-line of dealing with the “epidemic,” the Clinic, a Male’-based private hospital, has said it has been busy collaborating with the task force in trying to identify infection cases.

A spokesperson for the Clinic, which begun offering free dengue fever screening services on Tuesday (July 5), said it was continuing to receive a steady number of patients looking for dengue testing and had been working to the emergency protocols recently imposed by the government.

“At the moment I don’t think we are seeing the number of patients [with suspected dengue] going down,” she said. “From the first day [of the screening service], we have received large number of pediatric enquiries regarding dengue infections among children, though adults are coming for testing now in large numbers.“

Panic fears

The Clinic spokesperson revealed that the medical centre remained concerned about the impact panic was having on the general public.  She said this this concern reflected the limited amount of knowledge about the symptoms and severity of dengue fever within Maldivian society as a whole.

“Trying to create knowledge [about dengue] among the public is one of the main challenges we are facing. People who may have symptoms are sometimes sitting at home and relaxing trying to overcome the fever, which means that some cases of the virus are being missed,” she said.

“Dengue fever has to be better managed by people. Members of the public with the virus need to take more fluids, but they are lacking awareness of this.”

The spokesperson added that the Clinic was currently working to put together a leaflet that she said would try and provide more details about the virus.  During the current panic over dengue infections, the Clinic spokesperson suggested that some members of the public were staying at home instead of coming to be checked.

Despite concerns that the public may begin inundating hospitals beyond their capacity as a result of panic over the virus, Cathy Waters, Chief Executive of Male’s Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) said that increased patient numbers were to be expected during an outbreak like that presently taking place in the country.

“We have seen a lot of children being bought in by relatives because of the virus. I think that some panic is to be expected as people are concerned about dengue, but the situation is definitely stable here at the hospital,” she said. “I think the message has got out about the virus and its symptoms and people are responding to this.”

In trying to treat patients found to be suffering from the effects of dengue, Waters said that the hospital had moved to adapt additional wards and services to dealing specifically on trying to deal with the ongoing dengue outbreak, yet she added that the overall situation was under control.

“At the moment we would describe the situation as relatively stable, but definitely very busy here,” said the hospital chief executive. “We have set up an additional fever clinic, which means people can be seen relatively quickly for testing and then be given the necessary treatment.”

Waters added that the current dengue situation had required the hospital to develop contingency plans to allow for the provision of increased bed capacity as well as bringing in additional nurses to cope with demand.

The hospital chief executive said that this had in certain cases meant that some surgeries had to be cancelled to accommodate dengue testing and treatment, a situation that would continue to be reviewed regularly to ensure patient demands were being met as best fitted the situation.

The government taskforce has said that it is expecting to address members of the media concerning the latest developments later this evening.

While pledging to support efforts to try and cut dengue infection rates in the country, opposition politicians have been critical of the speed by which the government has responded to the present outbreak.

Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef, Spokesperson for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), saidthat he believed that the government had “bungled” their response to trying to control dengue fever.

“From what we have seen the government is just not doing enough. We don’t believe they have been willfully negligent, but there has been negligence in their approach [to dengue outbreak],” he claimed. “They have not responded fast enough, which could be inexperience on their part. But I think this will be a wake-up call for them to change policy in dealing with these type of situations.”

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Task force claims dengue “epidemic” under control despite coordination concerns

The task force appointed by the government to combat a dengue fever outbreak linked to the deaths of seven people has claimed it is beginning to bring the spread of the virus under control, despite initial difficulties in coordinating with local councils.

A spokesperson for the task force, which has been put in charge of coordinating the responses of government ministries, the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) and NGOs like the Red Crescent, has said it has overcome initial difficulties such as dealing with local councils in trying to curb virus infection rates.

In a week where authorities have labelled the latest outbreak of dengue fever across the country as an “epidemic“, opposition parties have been critical of both the speed and nature of the government’s response to these concerns, despite welcoming efforts to try and combat the virus.

The criticisms come after newspaper Haveeru reported that a four-year old boy, who had been brought to Male’ for treatment of dengue fever, had become the seventh person in the last week to have died from the virus.

Despite fears of the virus continuing to spread, for those charged with coordinating the country’s dengue control programme, “significant progress” is claimed to have been made over the last few days in collecting data and trying to understand the full scale of the current outbreak and how to contain it.

At present, the taskforce overseeing this national response the to dengue fever has said that it expects the current outbreak to be fully under control within a week.  The claims have been backed by official figures supplied by the same coordination body that indicated that 11 suspected cases of dengue were reported today, compared to 16 cases recorded yesterday and 18 cases the day before.

Speaking to Minivan News today, the task force’s media spokesperson said that while dengue outbreaks were nothing new in the Maldives, the number of suspected cases of the virus that traditionally were expected dropped by this time of year had in fact spiked. The spokesperson added that this apparent spike in infections had created a number of coordination difficulties for a new system of local government put in place following the country’s first local council elections in February.

“Compared to last year, during these dates, figures usually go down. However, this month, there has been a spike [in numbers of dengue cases],” he said. “When the local councils took over [collecting data about the virus from the Health Ministry], the whole process was stalled, nothing was moving.”

The spokesperson said that there was insufficient research to identify the exact factors driving a suspected spike in infection numbers of late.  However, he claimed there had been “many internal and administrative problems” that when combined with the country’s wet season – resulting from the south west monsoon that runs from May to November – may have served to exacerbate the impacts of the outbreak.

According to the task force spokesperson, the decision to hand over the responsibility for detailing information on the spread of dengue from the Health Ministry to island councils had initially raised notable problems for the government; though these issues were now being resolved.

“There were some problems in getting councillors initially to work on weekends, but I think everyone has understood the severity of the outbreak,” he added.

While no “drastic” changes had been made in the methods used by authorities themselves to combat dengue fever infections, the taskforce representative said that the key focus for efforts both now and during any future “epidemics” would be in trying to ensure that the mechanisms for coordination were working efficiently.

“In the future, this task force will have helped with this, because we are getting important data and contacts,” the representative said.

With the task force currently budgeted to run for seven days, the body’s media spokesperson said that no decision had yet been made on whether similar initiatives would be used during future outbreaks, yet he was confident that important lessons could be learnt from the current system.

“I think the task force will help to administer preventative measures during outbreaks in the future. Building a fixed system out of this existing network will be very helpful,” he said. “There has been a change in how government works, so people have had difficulties in adjusting to this and awareness of requirements has been low. Councils also have to realise their responsibilities as well.”

The task force spokesperson claimed that preventative measures for dengue also needed to focus on members of the public in areas like education at schools, as well as improving hygiene in houses and carrying out inspections at construction sites to limit mosquito breeding grounds.

“I think the basic thing is to get this system in place, like in schools, things like education on personal hygiene and dealing with councils,” he said. “If these don’t work, then every time we can’t always go to the MNDF for assistance.”

“Bungled” response

Despite the task force representative’s claims, Ibrahim ‘Mavota’ Shareef, Spokesperson for the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), saidthat he believed that the government had “bungled” their response to trying to control dengue fever. Shareef added that although the DRP welcomed and would cooperate with the government in efforts to try and limit the spread of the virus, he said that authorities had acted too slowly in trying to deal with the outbreak.

“From what we have seen the government is just not doing enough. We don’t believe they have been willfully negligent, but there has been negligence in their approach [to dengue outbreak],” he claimed. “They have not responded fast enough, which could be inexperience on their part. But I think this will be a wake-up call for them to change policy in dealing with these type of situations.”

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