MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica – Some 116,000 premises in western parishes were inspected for mosquito breeding sites in August, as the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) intensifies vector control activities in light of the recent increase in rainfall.

Regional Vector Control Officer at the WRHA, Ryan Morris, said that the heightened activities have resulted in a decline in the region’s Aedes index to seven per cent, down from 8.2 per cent in July.

The lowering of the Aedes index means that the number of breeding sites found in relation to the number of premises inspected has declined.

Providing data by parish, Morris said that the Aedes index for St James was at 11 per cent for August, down from 14 per cent for the previous month; Westmoreland has been showing consistency at six per cent over the last three months; Hanover was at five per cent, down from seven per cent; and Trelawny was at eight per cent, down from nine per cent.

“Based on where our indices is at now as a region, we are comfortable with the level of control,” Morris said.

He attributed the stability to the increase in manpower under the enhanced task worker programme and the provision of critical resources to boost vector control activities.

He said that the enhanced task worker programme is expected to continue into next year.

“We have an increase in workers out there in the communities carrying out search and destroy. So with that form of increase in manpower, and with the resources that we got last year in terms of transportation, fogging machines and such, we are confident that we will be able to control the indices to a respectable level so as to not have an outbreak (of dengue) at least for this year,” Morris said.