OCHO RIOS, St Ann — There have been no recorded cases of dengue in the parish of St Ann since December of last year and the parish’s medical officer of health, Dr Tamara Henry, is lauding residents for their role in curbing the disease.

“We want to say congrats to the populace because they are doing what they are supposed to and we are happy about that,” she said during Thursday’s monthly sitting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation.

“We had our peak in October but subsequently they kept trending down and I’m very happy about that,” Henry added.

She said that as of January 10, there were 407 suspected cases of dengue, 13 presumed and 78 confirmed. Though the numbers have been trending down, the health department continues to be vigilant.

“We continue with our search-and-destroy activities. In the month of December we visited over 7,000 premises and 105 of those were key premises. We were able to inspect 15,765 containers; 2,348 of those were positive, giving us a container index of 14.5 per cent and we are happy about that because in the month of November we were at 19.71 per cent,” said Henry.

“We did 58 fogging sessions across the parish because our progress was hindered by the weather conditions but we will continue with our efforts,” she added.

However, she did have some areas of concern, and she attempted to enlist the help of councillors at the meeting.

“We are seeing elevated indices in some areas such as Douglas Castle, Hazelwood, Steer Town, Clapham, Lime Hall, Walkerswood, Moneague, Mines, Claremont, and Orange Hill; so please assist us by engaging the community members in those areas,” appealed Henry.

“I want to say commendations to the team members from the municipal corporation who have decided to put some measures in place to ensure we are heightening our sense of responsibility for the populace,” said Henry.

The local authority has also been helping with fogging activities across the parish.