Where is the Minister of Health?

For weeks now we have been reading and hearing about the increase in the number of cases of Belizeans suffering from dengue fever.  In fact just last week another Belizean died as a result of hemorrhagic dengue.

In the streets the stories of our people’s experiences dealing with the public health system, besides being sad, are shameful and plainly simply embarrassing.  They talk of their family members who can’t get a bed in the hospital because it is overcrowded, or the opposite, of where people are being dismissed from hospital not completely recovered.  Many of these people are being told they need the space for someone waiting for a bed.  And then there is the case of the Northern Regional Hospital where simple pain killers and other medication that is used to treat people with dengue are unavailable and when available is being rationed.

And in the midst of all this, it appears that no one in the Ministry of Health knows the extent of situation with respect to dengue.   Worse, no one seems to know what is being done in the area of prevention.

This is not a good situation, for Belizeans to protect themselves; information has to be readily available and accessible.  For example, it is important to know the number of Belizeans who have been and are currently diagnosed with dengue fever.

This information is even more important in those areas where the reported cases are most prevalent, like the Belize and Cayo districts, which happens to be the two most populated districts in the country.  The Aedes Aegypti mosquito is the carrier of the disease – once the mosquito bites an infected person, it carries the disease to the next person it bites.  These mosquitoes are known to travel a radius of about 3 miles.  For this reason the number of infected persons in a particular area is of great importance.    This kind of information is not only important to people in the area, but also for the health officials in the Vector Control Unit who must effectively deploy their resources including insecticides, the machines and the trucks used for spraying.

While a few dated commercials have been running on television and radio, the extent of the public campaign must go beyond water in tires and open containers.  The Ministry of Health was allocated $322,000 to be spent on epidemiology and another $1.8 million to be spent in the office of the Director of Health Services along with an additional $866,000 for vector control.  What are these monies being used for?

To better protect communities from being affected by dengue there are things that we can be do without a heavy financial cost. For example, it has been proven effective that just before the start of a rainy season communities should conduct a “Clean up Campaign.” This can be done with the assistance of the private sector and with the local city, town and village councils.

On the scientific side, it is important for the people in the department of public health to know how the effect of the chemicals that are using to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito.  They also need to see how these chemicals are affecting humans as well as the effects on the food supply.

Whether the Minister of Health wants to accept it or not, there is a dengue epidemic in Belize.  His silence on these critical health issues has become a pattern, one that can cost Belizeans their lives.  How much more evidence does the Prime Minister need to prove that his health minister’s incompetence is a detriment to the Belizean people?

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