KINGSTON, Jamaica — Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr Lisa Indar, says the regional health body is continuing to support Jamaica’s public health response and recovery efforts following the passage of Hurricane Melissa last October.

The CARPHA head is currently on a working visit to the island, where she has so far met with the country’s chief medical officer as well as the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health to discuss strengthening systems as the country transitions from response to recovery.

“So some of the discussions was how do we strengthen national lab capacity,” she told Observer Online, noting that CARPHA had already begun supporting the process by providing rapid PCR testing kits and other supplies.

She said the aim is to strengthen laboratory capacity not only at the National Public Health Laboratory but also at regional facilities such as Cornwall Regional Hospital so that testing can be conducted more quickly.

“You know, public health threats after a hurricane could be food and water borne, vector borne and so on, and a number of community interventions are needed in terms of safety, sanitation, vector control etc,” she explained.

Indar said the discussions also included antimicrobial surveillance and ways CARPHA can support Jamaica’s public health infrastructure going forward.

She noted that hurricanes often create conditions that increase the risk of infectious diseases.

According to Indar, contamination of water supplies can lead to food and water borne infections such as salmonella, listeria and campylobacter, while increased rainfall can also heighten the risk of mosquito-borne illnesses.

“And then you have diseases like lepto, others that may come up. And it’s all about sanitation and increased rainfall pattern that then leads to proliferation of these diseases,” she said.

However, she praised Jamaica’s preparedness and response, noting that the island has “a very strong public health system” and “knew these were coming up and therefore they were prepared.”

She added that laboratory testing capacity remains critical in confirming suspected illnesses following disasters.

“The biggest thing was, of course, making sure from the lab that we were to test and verify. Sometimes based on symptoms, you have a idea, but if you do have the lab capacity or equipment, you need to have that to verify.”

Indar said CARPHA’s continued support will also involve surveillance systems and community interventions.

“A big part of recovery too is putting surveillance systems in place,” she said, adding that efforts are underway to improve the integration of laboratory data with Jamaica’s national electronic surveillance systems to allow for real-time reporting and faster responses to potential outbreaks.

According to Indar, CARPHA mobilised quickly after the hurricane struck.

“When Melissa hit in late October, CARPHA was there on site within a couple of days, as part of a high level mission, where we met with the prime minister, minister of health and others to say, CARPHA’s role is about providing public health support.”

According to Indar, the agency immediately activated its incident management team and sought funding to assist with the emergency response.

“So in that regard we immediately activated our incident management team and we started to solicit funding from our pandemic fund, UK, and others just to see how we are able to get immediate funding to provide supplies,” she said.

She noted that CARPHA secured approximately US$700,000 which was used to provide a range of public health supplies, including personal protective equipment, medical supplies and laboratory equipment for rapid testing.

“In fact, it was through our new equipment that we would have sent to the National Public Health Lab, we were able to confirm leptospirosis,” Indar said.

Additional supplies were also provided to assist with food safety, sanitation, environmental monitoring, water quality testing and protection against vector-borne diseases, as well as equipment for hospitals.

“CARPHA is the regional public health agency, and so therefore, it wasn’t about providing housing and equipment for building back. But more what are the public health responses and this is where we focus our relief efforts,” she added.

Looking at the wider Caribbean, Indar said CARPHA’s priority is to strengthen regional health systems by recognising the unique vulnerabilities of island states.

She pointed out that Caribbean nations are small, interconnected and heavily dependent on tourism, while also facing significant vulnerability to natural disasters and vector-borne diseases.

“We are small countries. Jamaica is one of our biggest, but we’re still small islands and we are interconnected. We are tourism dependent. We have porous borders. We have high vulnerability to vector-borne diseases, high vulnerability to natural disasters.”

To address these challenges, CARPHA has developed Caribbean-specific emergency response systems, including real-time digital surveillance and early warning mechanisms.

“So we develop real time early warning systems… This is looking at all our surveillance and adding a real-time component,” Indar said.

She explained that the systems include alert mechanisms that allow health authorities to quickly detect outbreaks and respond before diseases spread widely.

“If you’re able to detect something quickly, you can be able to stop or reduce spread,” she added.