THE CHIKUNGUNYA OUTBREAK in Barbados is creating a lot of work for doctors and making great demands on pharmacists.
At the same time, it has also extended the work of environmental health officers and public health nurses, many of whom now have Saturday as a regular workday.
Tomorrow, their presence will be very evident across many communities in St Michael as they will be part of a public education initiative by the Constituency Councils in the parish on how to clean up and combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito which is responsible for both chikunyunga and dengue.
While some councils want to target specific areas such as Free Hill, Goodland, Deacons and Bridge Gap, others want to cover at least 80 per cent of their areas. These initiatives are expected to be undertaken over a number of weekends.
The environmental health officers have been working in St Andrew with its Constituency Council and a number of other groups over the past few Saturdays, also to fight the mosquito problem.
Tyrone Applewhaite, the chief environmental health officer, said the efforts by those in his department were aimed at “ensuring that residents are well informed about control of the mosquito” and lauded the community involvement which has also included the District Emergency Organisations and parish ambassadors.
Residents are asked to be on the lookout for the teams in their districts and to lend full cooperation. (ES)
