THE situation with respect to dengue infection is much worse than that reported by the Ministry of Health.
Many patients are being treated at private medical centres, which are not forwarding statistics to the Ministry.
Some infected people are medicating at home.
In addition, San Fernando General Hospital, which serves some 200,000 residents of south-west Trinidad, currently does not have dengue testing kits.
Medical sources say there are high infection rates in the Victoria and St. Patrick counties, which include San Fernando, semi-urban districts and rural communities in the south-western peninsula.
“It is safe to say there are a few thousand people with dengue,” a top medic at South-West Regional Health Authority (SWRHA) said.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh recently put the infection figure at just over 400.
But the SWRHA source said the number of patients currently at or discharged from San Fernando medical centres “could easily be more than 400.”
Private medical facilities are not duty-bound to provide data on patients to the Health Ministry.
Some patients are treated and discharged within hours while others are warded for a few days until symptoms wane or disappear.
Apart from the infection rate, there is a crippling shortage of spraying machines, insecticide, manpower, vehicles and other resources at the Insect Vector Control Division of the Ministry of Health,
There is, therefore, limited spraying to control the spread of aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which spread dengue and other dangerous diseases.
The division has been unable to effectively carry out its work, including in low-lying, waterlogged areas conducive to the spread of the disease.
Rural regional corporations have complained that the lack of resources places the health of thousands of residents at risk.
Deyalsingh stepped into action only in May even though the Caribbean Public Health Authority (CARPHA) issued an advisory last October of an impending major outbreak.
Several Caribbean countries, most notably Jamaica, took preventative measures, including assigning budgets for clean-up and spraying exercises.
