KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — The Ministry of Health will, in upcoming weeks, be launching a community leadership forum, to engage leaders of community-based organisations across the island to collaborate in the development of measures to fight vector-borne diseases.

Minister of Health, Dr Christopher Tufton, made the disclosure in an interview with JIS News ahead of a ceremony to open the National Labour Day Project at the Gregory Park Basic School in Portmore, on Labour Day, May 23.

He said the leaders would be pulled together on a parish level for a conversation on actions to be taken and ways they can join forces with the government in its efforts.

Dr Tufton, meanwhile, reiterated his call for the public to take personal responsibility in caring their environment and eradicating mosquito-breeding sites.

“Preventing the spread (of vector-borne diseases) is largely a function of citizen action in their immediate environment. Some 70 per cent of breeding sites are found in and around the homes,” he said.

The minister hailed the focus of National Workers’ Week and Labour Day on linking healthy outcomes to a clean environment as important, noting that it was born out of concern by the Government and Jamaicans on the threat of the Zika virus.

Dr Tufton said so far there have been 10 confirmed cases of the virus in Jamaica.

“Labour day is intended to mobilize the community to recognise the risk of this particular virus and similar viruses and to spread the message of citizen engagement in order to address the concerns,” he said.

National Workers’ Week was observed from May 15 to Labour Day (May 23), under the theme: ‘For Health’s Sake…Keep It Clean’.

As part of the National Labour Day Project, carried out in the Washington Mews and Gregory Park areas in Portmore, a team from the Ministry of Health distributed brochures to community members and engaged them in talks about ways to clean up the environment and prevent mosquito breeding.