Dear Editor,

Much like Jamaica, I find myself this morning in a kind of quandary. Why? I have an upcoming trip planned for the island as I wish to see my mother, daughter, as well as some old friends. In addition, I have some business there that I need to attend to.

Meanwhile, swirling down there in Jamaica is the mushrooming chikungunya virus crisis. This mosquito-borne illness, although not a new virus, is still not clearly defined, and it is clear that the Jamaican health authorities have not yet developed the history nor have in their possession sufficient resources to combat its spread.

According to world public health experts, this virus will require, at the very least, a nine-month period before it approaches a 40 per cent infection level necessary for population resistance and to reach a point where containment can begin to be claimed.

Jamaica has been strafed for years by economic malaise, and in recent years has had to re-establish borrowing relationships with the IMF. One feature of this courtship has been the jettisoning of certain social programmes. Public health programmes and general hospital funding initiatives have been known to fall in this category. Another symptom is that parts of Jamaica have been swimming in garbage over recent months as there obviously isn’t enough money to pay for garbage collection. To make matters worse, the drought that had ravaged the island has not been sufficiently broken.

I quite like Health Minister Fenton Ferguson. A very nice man he is, but at the moment he is a politician and a member of a Government now caught between a rock and a hard place. Government cannot declare that the virus is approaching epidemic levels. Doing this sends a bad signal to your tourist markets and will result in travel advisories against the island and the drying up of tourist dollars. Neither can they ask for international help to fight the spread of the virus because this, too, sends the same message.

It is time, however, that Portia Simpson Miller, as prime minister and head of the Government, comes clean. It is time to take a leadership position in dealing with this issue — much like the personal dilemma that I have to face regarding my trip home and the risk of exposure! It is time for the Jamaican Government to announce a national plan to contain this virus and to provide constant public education on its management. Now is not the time to shy away.

In the meantime, I too have a decision to make.

Richard Hugh Blackford

Coral Springs, Florida

richardhblackford@gmail.com