HEALTH Minister Horace Dalley on Thursday vowed that his ministry would do everything necessary to prevent the Zika virus subjecting Jamaicans to a repeat of the onslaught experienced by the chikungunya outbreak last year.

Speaking to senior health officials from across the island at a training and preparation seminar for the Zika virus at Knutsford Court hotel in Kingston, Dalley urged officials to re-energise themselves while also calling for a collaborative effort to minimise the infection’s impact, should it reach the island’s shores.

“I can’t stop the Zika virus from coming, we can’t stop the Zika virus from coming, you can’t stop it from coming, but we are going to do everything in our power — community by community, parish by parish — to ensure that we try our very best to eliminate the mosquito, to identify the virus if it is here, or when it comes or if it comes, and to make sure we do our part to minimise the impact on our population, our economy and our people,” Dalley said in an impassioned plea that gained favour with his audience.

The Zika virus is an emerging disease that is transmitted from human to human by the bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes — the same mosquito that transmits chikungunya and dengue.

According to the latest epidemiological alert issued by the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation, as of December 1, 2015, the virus has been confirmed in nine countries in the Americas — Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Suriname, and Venezuela. There have also been three Zika virus-related deaths since November 28, 2015, all of which occurred in Brazil.

As the virus makes its way across the region, Dalley bemoaned the disconnect that exists between his ministry and the health regions and parishes. He appealed to senior health officials to foster a close connection with the ministry for direction, advice and also for evaluation.

“The Ministry of Health is charged with the responsibility to inform and keep the country updated on the state of health of the country — that’s not the responsibility of any parish or any region,” Dalley noted. “For the Ministry of Health to do that, the information and the co-ordination from the regions and the institutions in health must be on time and they must be done.”

He stressed that the ministry cannot keep the country informed unless it receives the information from the regions, but insisted that the health team cannot deliver health care alone. Dalley said civil society, private sector organisations, communities, youth groups, and churches, along with other groups, are all “partners in health”.

“And therefore, we, at all times, must never believe that we can deliver health care on our own without the participation of those stakeholders — our professional bodies must take their responsibility serious also,” he said.

Pointing to a similar meeting that was held ahead of the chikungunya outbreak to look at the virus they had been hearing about for several months, Dalley said when it hit Jamaica, “even the best preparation in the world caused us to — we didn’t really scatter — but we appeared as if we were unprepared”.

“The public perception is, we appeared as if we were unprepared,” Dalley admitted. “There was very little financing at the time to lead the campaign, there was training but the material and physical support was not in place; and so, therefore, the entire population, including myself… suffered tremendously from the outbreak.”

Speaking to the fluidity of the Zika virus and the “travelling world” in which we now live, Dalley said unless customs officers and border protection officers are alert, the virus could be introduced any day, at any time, from any flight into Jamaica.

He insisted that since the national health team alone cannot prevent the spread of the virus, the team should do everything to ensure that they communicate with the public and that the public is mobilised to take part and play their part in minimising the spread of the infection, if or when it is introduced.

Dalley reminded the health officials that they all have a role to play.

“At the planning level and at the management level, I have a responsibility as the minister of health,” Dalley said. “The chief medical officer has her responsibility to have the teams trained, prepared and motivated.

“The permanent secretary has his responsibility to be able to collaborate with institutions and other sectors to find additional funds, to go down to Ministry of Finance to make sure we get some funds, contact and keep in touch with our international partners to ensure that we can get support, to make sure the lab, if we have it, is in a good state; to make sure the basic things we have, we have them positioned all around Jamaica,” he explained.

He told the senior health officials that they have their roles to play at the regional and parish levels, to ensure that they do their inventory and also to mobilise the country.

“Outreach with communities, outreach with civil societies, outreach with churches — that is what we are going to do,” Dalley said to the attentive gathering. “We are going to call on every single Jamaican, every church — in the message on Saturday or in the message on Sunday, tell your congregation, look around your house, search your house, search your environment, find this mosquito and kill it.”

Meanwhile, the health minister said he has told Chief Medical Officer Marion Bullock DuCasse and Permanent Secretary Dr Kevin Harvey that he wants 1,000 young people in the communities, searching every home, helping and assisting to get rid of mosquito-breeding sites. The minister also said that these young people, who will come from colleges, high schools, and communities, will be paid.

“We want to have every single hand on deck to protect our population,” Dalley insisted.