Misryoum reports the health ministry says it is monitoring unusual respiratory illnesses and urges strict rodent control and safe cleaning.
RAD-HI-CA DE SIL-VA Se-nior Mul-ti-me-dia Re-porter rad-hi-[email protected] Health Min-is-ter Dr Lack-ram Bo-doe says the Min-istry of Health is care-ful-ly mon-i-tor-ing un-usu-al res-pi-ra-to-ry ill-ness-es in Trinidad and To-ba-go amid in-ter-na-tion-al con-cern over a clus-ter of han-tavirus cas-es linked to a cruise ship bound for the Ca-nary Is-lands.. In a Min-istry fact sheet is-sued this week, the min-istry said there were cur-rent-ly no con-firmed cas-es of han-tavirus in Trinidad and To-ba-go, but not-ed that sur-veil-lance re-mained
ac-tive fol-low-ing re-ports from the World Health Or-ga-ni-za-tion (WHO).. “The Min-istry of Health con-tin-ues to mon-i-tor the in-ter-na-tion-al and re-gion-al sit-u-a-tion while main-tain-ing ac-tive sur-veil-lance for un-usu-al res-pi-ra-to-ry ill-ness-es amongst the pop-u-la-tion,” the ad-vi-so-ry stat-ed.. The warn-ing comes af-ter the WHO con-firmed eight cas-es of han-tavirus, in-clud-ing three deaths, linked to pas-sen-gers aboard an in-ter-na-tion-al cruise ship.. Ac-cord-ing to the WHO, the cas-es in-volved the rare An-des strain of the virus, the on-ly known han-tavirus
strain ca-pa-ble of lim-it-ed hu-man-to-hu-man trans-mis-sion through close and pro-longed con-tact with bod-i-ly flu-ids.. Speak-ing to Guardian Me-dia, con-sul-tant in in-ter-nal med-i-cine and CNC3 host Dr Joel Teelucks-ingh al-so urged the pub-lic to take ro-dent con-trol and san-i-ta-tion se-ri-ous-ly, warn-ing that im-prop-er clean-ing of ro-dent-in-fest-ed ar-eas could in-crease the risk of in-fec-tion.. “Han-tavirus is not usu-al-ly a cruise ship virus.. It doesn’t spread like COVID.. It doesn’t jump from per-son to per-son in crowd-ed din-ing
halls,” Teelucks-ingh said.. “It comes from rat urine and drop-pings that be-come air-borne, es-pe-cial-ly in en-closed spaces.” He ex-plained that ear-ly symp-toms can of-ten re-sem-ble oth-er vi-ral ill-ness-es, mak-ing di-ag-no-sis dif-fi-cult.. “We know about the non-spe-cif-ic symp-toms of many virus-es: fever, chills, mus-cle aches or fa-tigue.. In fact, I think we may have mis-di-ag-nosed cas-es as lep-tospiro-sis,” he said.. Teelucks-ingh warned that some pa-tients can rapid-ly de-te-ri-o-rate af-ter ini-tial flu-like symp-toms.. “Sud-den-ly short-ness of breath,
flu-id-filled lungs and ICU.. This is han-tavirus pul-monary syn-drome (HPS), with mor-tal-i-ty ap-proach-ing one in three.” He added that in se-vere cas-es, pa-tients may al-so de-vel-op liv-er and kid-ney fail-ure.. Teelucks-ingh en-cour-aged peo-ple to spray ro-dent drop-pings be-fore at-tempt-ing to clean them.. “This is pre-ventable.. Seal en-try points.. Clean safe-ly.. Avoid sweep-ing dry drop-pings.. Ven-ti-late en-closed spaces,” he said.. He added: “Pub-lic health is san-i-ta-tion.. In-fra-struc-ture.. Pest con-trol.. The bor-ing things that qui-et-ly save lives.”
The min-istry al-so urged mem-bers of the pub-lic to main-tain prop-er en-vi-ron-men-tal san-i-ta-tion and ro-dent con-trol mea-sures to re-duce the risk of ro-dent-borne dis-eases, in-clud-ing han-tavirus and lep-tospiro-sis.. Min-istry warn-ing Ac-cord-ing to the min-istry’s ad-vi-so-ry, the virus spreads pri-mar-i-ly through con-tact with in-fect-ed ro-dents, their urine, drop-pings or sali-va.. In-fec-tion can oc-cur when con-t-a-m-i-nat-ed dust par-ti-cles be-come air-borne and are in-haled, par-tic-u-lar-ly while clean-ing ro-dent-in-fest-ed ar-eas.. The min-istry warned against dry sweep-ing or vac-u-um-ing ro-dent
drop-pings, say-ing those ac-tions could re-lease virus par-ti-cles in-to the air.. In-stead, of-fi-cials rec-om-mend-ed a “wet clean-ing” method in-volv-ing dis-in-fec-tant sprays or di-lut-ed bleach so-lu-tions be-fore wip-ing con-t-a-m-i-nat-ed sur-faces.