San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein says there may be a lot more than seven people in Trinidad with the Zika virus as he says many people have the virus and did not know. He said so during the San Fernando City Corporation’s statutory meeting at the City Hall auditorium on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry announced the latest case, a 40-year-old man of St Ann’s, Port-of-Spain.
“I was speaking to a doctor yesterday and he was telling me there are many people who have all the symptoms of Zika but don’t know they have the virus,” Hosein said.
Later, during a visit to the Gulf View community where the nation’s sixth confirmed Zika patient resides, Hosein reiterated his statements, saying:
“A lot of people have this virus and don’t know they have it. Just last week someone in the Public Health Department came down with the red eye, which is one of the symptoms of the virus.
“I specifically said at the statutory meeting that we will not be taking this lightly,” Hosein said. He was unable to meet with the victim as Public Health Inspector Jameel Mohammed said the man had returned to his job as he had gotten over his symptoms.
“He came down with symptoms around March 10, it lasted about a week and coincidentally he was on holiday at the time and he has since gone back out to work,” Mohammed said.
The man, a 31-year-old engineer, is the third person to contract the virus in Gulf View district in the past month. On March 5, Gulf View resident Ollen Storey and her daughter received confirmation that they had both tested positive for the virus.
Hosein said the corporation intended to ramp up its action in the fight against Zika, with house-to-house spraying which began on Wednesday in the Gulf View community. He said he was given instructions by Health Minister Terrance Deyalsingh to “step up” the fight against Zika.
Mohammed called for the co-operation of citizens as, he said, the spraying would take place inside of people’s homes.
“We will be doing house-to-house spraying that would involve going into people’s homes and they will need to co-operate with us,” Mohammed said.
“We have a problem with closed houses because when our workers visit almost 30 per cent of the houses are closed,” he added.
Mohammed said citizens needed to understand the seriousness of the threat the Aedes Aegypti mosquito posed as the mosquito could survive and breed in the smallest amounts of water. He added: “People must really be conscious of stagnant water on their premises because this mosquito is a survivor. If this mosquito is allowed even a cork-full of water it will survive and we need to attack from the source.
“We really need to realise the seriousness of this. This is the third disease this mosquito has spread and has caused epidemics in Trinidad.
“I am referring to dengue, Chik V and now this... what more do we need to hit us for us to realise this mosquito is a survivor?”