Community leaders invited
to meeting on dengue fever
PHILIPSBURG--Sector Health Care Affairs (SHCA) is inviting representatives of the various communities on the island to a meeting on Wednesday, December 19, regarding the dengue fever pre-alert in St. Maarten.
The meeting will be held at SHCA Conference Room in the Vineyard Building at 7:00pm sharp.
“The objective of the meeting is to seek the support of community leaders with respect to informing their respective communities about what measures need to be taken to combat the mosquito that can carry dengue fever,” it was stated in a press release by Government Information Services (GIS).
“Additional information will be provided about dengue fever and the response activities to date to eliminate mosquito breeding areas. Inspectors of the Hygiene and Veterinary Affairs are involved in the mosquito control, but they cannot do the job alone; the support of the entire community is required. Through the meeting with the community leaders, we expect to get the community more involved in preventing mosquito breeding sites.”
The information session forms part of the public education component of the dengue management programme implemented by SHCA. “The other two central components are disease surveillance and mosquito control. These components form part of the discussion of the dengue fever workgroup consisting of representatives from SHCA, Sanitation Department, Tourism Department and the Government Information Service, which meets on a weekly basis,” GIS said.
“Schools, community, social, and service clubs will also be targeted to get involved in informing the students, the club’s members and society at large about what measures can be taken to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds. They will also be informed on the role that society must play in decreasing dengue fever on the island. Residents are being requested to take immediate measures to destroy the habitats where mosquitoes can breed,” it was stated in the release.
