THE University of the West Indies (UWI) has launched a Regional UWI Zika Task Force that will leverage the university’s extensive public health capabilities and co-ordinate its efforts with regional governments and health ministries to combat the virus.

Vice Chancellor Professor Sir Hilary Beckles announced that Prof Clive Landis, deputy principal of UWI’s Cave Hill, Barbados campus, will chair the task force comprising eminent scholars, scientists and public health experts.

Other task force members are Angela Rose, infectious disease epidemiologist at the Chronic Disease Research Centre, UWI Cave Hill and member of the Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN), World Health Organization; Professor Winston Moore, economist in the Department of Economics, UWI Cave Hill; Professor Dave Chadee, environmental health researcher, Department of Life Science, UWI St Augustine, Trinidad; Dr Francene Gayle, neurologist at UWI Mona, Jamaica; Dr Michael Abraham, Jamaica, obstetrician and gynaecologist; Glenford Howe, UWI Open Campu; Professor Dale Webber, pro-vice chancellor Graduate Studies & Research, UWI Centre; and Professor Eric van Gorp, virology and technical support, Erasmus University, The Netherlands.

The UWI Regional Zika Task Force will help inform an aggressive and scientifically based prevention strategy to eliminate breeding sites for Aedes aegypti, The Task Force will work closely with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the ministries to pool resources to research and analyse the Zika outbreak and associated health complications in the Caribbean, and conduct economic impact studies and engage with ministries on outbreak preparedness.

A regional observatory will collate, organise and disseminate information about the virus and will make the university’s expertise accessible to researchers, government agencies, schools, health facilities and members of the general public.

The UWI Task Force will also convene a major symposium within the next three to four weeks involving regional ministries of health, donor agencies, national and regional public health agencies and tourism stakeholders.

Furthermore, the task force will develop and implement a comprehensive communications strategy for ensuring that information about the virus and its effects is shared broadly with the Caribbean public via radio, television, newspapers, the Web and social media platforms.

“The rapid spread of the Zika virus poses serious regional challenges at the levels of public health and safety and sustainable economic development, and as a regional university we have a duty and a responsibility to confront these challenges head-on,” said Prof Sir Hilary Beckles.

The vice chancellor also noted that the UWI is in a good position to work with international donor agencies in order to access resources to facilitate and implement its strategy, and to collaborate with universities and research teams across the hemisphere.

UWI not only has a wide range of relevant technical expertise which it can deploy, but also has accumulated in recent years important experiences and developed successful public health strategies through its efforts to help tackle the challenges of HIV/AIDS, dengue fever and chikungunya.

“The task force stands ready to throw its full weight and technical capabilities into the fight against Zika and we look forward to serving the governments, agencies and peoples of the Caribbean in combating this public health emergency,” said Prof Landis.

“We have been here before with malaria that we successfully eliminated from the Caribbean region and we can do it again even if this mosquito species presents some extra challenges by breeding in the smallest water reservoirs in and around our homes,” he added.

The WHO recently labelled the spread of the Zika virus as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) that requires the joint efforts of all countries to effectively tackle the problem. The Zika virus now has a classification similar to the Ebola virus and is strongly suspected to be linked to cases of microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with underdeveloped brains.

Many countries in the Caribbean region have already declared states of emergency over the Zika outbreak. Ministers of health from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed on a harmonised approach to confronting the fast-spreading virus which to date has affected more than 30 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Jamaica recently confirmed its first case in Portmore, St Catherine.

The OECS effort includes monitoring and surveillance, eradication and protection, care and case management, and public education campaigns. Several member states have already started implementing the measures and the OECS Council of Ministers will oversee the harmonisation effort.