SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Senator Sandrea Falconer, the minister in charge of information, has called on Jamaicans to play their part in preventing the potential spread of chikungunya by destroying the breeding grounds of mosquitoes which spread the virus that causes the disease.

Chikungunya is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain.

“Take the matter of the current chikungunya threat; of course the public health and hospital services must be ready and equipped to respond. But, I daresay there are things that we, all of us as responsible citizens can do to help. We can reduce the mosquito population and danger by destroying potential breathing sites. Anything that water can settle in; if it is a container, drum or a barrel we can cover them, we can keep them dry, we can clean them regularly and if is an old tyre, we fill them with soil and we can punch holes in those tyres or we can recycle or dispose of them in another way,” she said.

“We can either fight back or we can sit and do nothing and wait to get to the hospital when we are infected and become more of a burden on the system,” she added.

“The same is so true of so many lifestyle diseases which increasingly are having an adverse effect on that commitment to universal health care and service delivery,” Senator Falconer argued.

She was speaking at a ceremony to mark part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital, held on the grounds of the facility

last week.

The facility, which opened its doors on July 24, 1964, operates as the only Type B Hospital in the western region.

In addition to serving the parish of Westmoreland, people from the adjoining parishes of Hanover, St James and St Elizabeth also access its services, resulting in a reach of over 200,000 persons.

— Horace Hines