Dear Editor,

The health minister ought to stop playing the blame game and take responsibility for the chaos surrounding the management of chikungunya. Are we to take it that all along Dr Ferguson wasn’t aware that all suspected cases of chikungunya were not being reported?

If that is the case then it is clear his ministry has been incompetent at overseeing such a critical health situation.

The minister himself has stated that the disease is new to us in a recent address to Parliament. Hence, one would think he would see the urgency in being on top of things. In his interview at the People’s National Party’s 76th annual conference, he spoke confidently when he quoted figures of suspected cases and even compared them to the wider Caribbean and Americas. There was no indication of the possibility that those figures were lacking. He could have taken that moment to be transparent and urge those in his sector to do what he has accused them of neglecting to do now.

Why haven’t there been effective communication and checks between the private doctors and the ministry? Suitable accounting mechanisms have clearly been ignored all this time, meanwhile there is professed proper management of the growing epidemic.

To say you know that a number of doctors with big practices may not have the time to fill out these documents is colluding in the dismissal of the priority needed. The fact that laboratory testing to confirm is so expensive and results in only a small percentage of people opting to do it is challenge enough. Accurate reflections of suspected cases are the next best thing. You cannot reassure the public knowing full well you haven’t all the data needed to come to such a conclusion. The ministry’s records are by no means fit to be used to reflect the supposed grand efforts being put into controlling the outbreak. It means, therefore, there isn’t accuracy in the estimations of which parishes are hardest hit or even how widespread the virus is.

In addition to that, it could mean fogging activities and other vector control resources are being misappropriated too; areas that are most in need may be allowed to spiral further into health insecurity. At this point, both the people listening to reports and those providing information to the media to be shared do not know what is really happening.

Yohan Lee

St Andrew

yohan.s.r.lee@live.com