Saint Lucia Considers New Vector Control Approach

Contact: John Emmanuel

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 – St. Lucia is moving to adopt a new approach to controlling the  mosquito population so as to achieve greater effectiveness in reducing the incidence of disease transmitted by this vector.

The new integrated approach, also being considered by other Caribbean governments, will assign a greater role to communities in vector control. The plan was discussed here last week at a five-day workshop, against the backdrop of growing concern in the region about the incidence of mosquito-transmitted dengue fever.

Scientist at the Trinidad-based Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC), Dr. Samuel Rollings, said inadequate vector control programmes in the region were behind the increased occurrence of dengue fever.

“In the years gone by,  we thought that (vector control) had to be a programme which was going to be run essentially by governments and that’s not the case,” Dr Rollings said. “We can’t leave it to governments and public health alone, the communities are the ones who are really producing the vector.”

He added: “This vector is so well adapted to human habitation that we don’t even know it but we are producing them. It might be the holes in your brick wall, the guttering in your roof , etc. ….Therefore, what we are trying to do now is to make every member of the community become  part of the search and destroy team.”

 Coordinator of the Vector Control Programme in  St. Lucia’s Ministry of Health, Emmanuel Bobb,  said their efforts to control mosquitoes had not been as effective as it should. “….As a result, we are  trying to get new strategies such as trappings, surveillance systems and attempting for them to be less labour intensive in order to achieve a higher rate of kill.”

Bobb said vector control programmes in the Caribbean had suffered because they relied heavily on funding from international organizations like the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

When there was a drop in such funding, the programmes were set back because governments did not have the resources to pick up the slack, he noted.

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