MAYOR of Kingston Desmond McKenzie has requested approximately $4 million from the health ministry to clean the Duhaney River as well as five other sites in the corporate area, including Marcus Garvey Drive, that have been identified as breeding sites for the Anopheles mosquitoes which cause malaria.

Malaria is transmitted when the female Anopheles mosquito, infected with a malaria parasite, bites a human.
"We have requested funding through the Ministry of Health to begin specialised cleaning in the malaria-affected areas," he said. "There are a number of other areas in the corporate area, targeted for the malaria mitigation previously, where we notice breeding is taking place again. The programme is ready so we are just waiting on the ministry to start."

This is good news for residents in New Haven, St Andrew who, on Wednesday, told the Observer that they were worried that the Health Ministry's efforts to purify the heavily polluted Duhaney River - which has been fingered as the major breeding site for the Anopheles mosquito in that area - may not be enough to keep malaria at bay. A single case of malaria was discovered in the community on June 21, almost a year after Jamaica was declared malaria-free.
While admitting that the Health Ministry reacted quickly to prevent further outbreaks, the residents believe that the drains and gully must be cleaned to alleviate mosquito breeding.

"The mosquito dem kind of cut down now, but the fogging no really make a big difference. The man dem come and smoke them, but it come in like them just wake up the mosquito dem. We have to just lock up and resort to using the destroyer," Kemar Pierre, whose house is metres away from the murky waters which form a part of the Duhaney River, told the Observer.

"Me think the gully need fi drain because the water stagnant and it nuh really have no where fi run so the rain not even have to fall it just have fi drizzle and the river come over," he added.

The residents have also taken extra precautions by preventing the youngsters in the community from playing near the murky waters.

For them, keeping malaria at bay is practically a full-time job since they have to ensure that debris, which ends up in their section of the river, is cleared in order to prevent further breeding of mosquitoes on a daily basis.

"I really don't know if it under control, because we have a whole heap of mosquito," said Winifred McDonald, another resident who lives metres away from the river. "The drain want to clean because if the drain don't clean they not going to get rid of the mosquito them."

Since the case was discovered in New Haven, the ministry has intensified its vector control activities in the area and has also aggressively conducted house-to-house fever surveillance and community education.

Dr Eva Lewis-Fuller, chairperson for the Malaria Prevention and Control Committee and director of the Health Promotion and Protection in the ministry, told the Observer that the single case that was discovered in the community has been contained.

"We have taken 180 blood samples and they have all come back negative. We have also retested the malaria case after treatment and the test came back negative," she said.
Resident Dulce Burgess was among the residents who were tested.

"They were here on Sunday and them tek me blood fi go test it," she said. "Every evening them come and spray the area."

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