SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Medical officer of health for the parish of Westmoreland, Dr Marcia Graham has revealed that one case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been confirmed in the parish since the start of this year.

Addressing the regular monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation last Thursday, Dr Graham said COVID-19 is one of four identified types of respiratory viruses now circulating here in the parish.

According to Dr Graham, the Westmoreland Health Department has identified two more circulating viruses causing respiratory disease in the parish over the past month, since her February report when she said two viruses were present.

“I would have mentioned that we had one type of influenza type A, as well as the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). We continue to have those two but we now have [also] had cases coming back positive for a second type of influenza A — the one that caused the pandemic in 2009. We now have that circulating in the parish,” said Dr Graham.

“And we had our first COVID-19 case earlier this year. We have confirmed a COVID-19 [patient] that was ill in [a] hospital in the parish so we now have four circulating viruses. So, it’s important that we maintain our respiratory etiquette,” added Dr Graham.

Jamaica recorded its first case of COVID-19 in March 2020 and had more than 156,000 cases before the end of the pandemic was announced in 2023. The island has long stopped tracking COVID-19 cases as this is not considered a public health emergency, although isolated confirmations have been reported.

On Thursday, Dr Graham pointed to the importance of maintaining respiratory safe practises to curb the spread of respiratory viruses. She pointed out the flu vaccine is available and is for the prevention of severe illness.

“Even if you catch it, it will treat you much kinder; you won’t get it so bad. So we encourage persons, especially those living with chronic diseases, to take the vaccine,” added Dr Graham as she mentioned the numerous public health observations during March.

Among them is World Tuberculosis Day which is observed on March 24.

Dr Graham pointed to the symptoms and treatment for the virus, and highlighted the importance of supporting and encouraging people with tuberculosis to take the full course of treatment.

“If you are having a prolonged cough with sweating at night and weight loss, it could be that you have tuberculosis. The good news is that tuberculosis is treatable. The treatment, though, is a six-month treatment and so we have to encourage and support persons who are diagnosed to complete the treatment and not experience treatment fatigue — because if they are incompletely treated then they can spread it to others, their close contacts. Plus, it will also increase the risk of having drug resistance to the medication that we use that is affordable,” explained Dr Graham.

“We can take the necessary precautions. We don’t want to stigmatise them, discriminate against them, [and] scorn them. We want to support them in completing the treatment so we can decrease the tuberculosis footprint in our parish,” reasoned Dr Graham.

March is also recognised as National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month, and Dr Graham noted the medical personnel in Jamaica are seeing more and more people with this cancer at its advanced stage.

“And so we encourage persons, if you are seeing a change in your bowel habits, you are seeing blood in your stool, that you really need to have that checked out. And don’t assume that it’s haemorrhoids —or piles as we call it— or something else that’s causing it. It can be cancer,” explained Dr Graham.

“We encourage persons who are 45 years old and over to do an annual stool test to check for blood. That’s the starting point. If there’s something abnormal there, then your health-care provider will do additional investigation,” added Dr Graham.

She also pointed to the importance of proper nutrition, with March 1 being observed as National Nutrition Day.

“We encourage persons to do container gardening. You don’t need a backyard to garden; you can garden in containers,” shared Dr Graham.

“So we encourage persons to embrace good nutrition. And that links in with some other special days this month because when you think about good nutrition, it means that you need to be looking at decreasing your salt intake. Salt Awareness Week is the last week of this month. And, you need to be drinking more water. World Water Day is on the 22nd of this month, and if you do that you will preserve your kidney function. And World Kidney Day was the 14th of this month. So it all ties into proper nutrition for disease prevention,” argued the medical officer.

The senior doctor also named the increase in violence as a disease. March 3 was celebrated as Peace Day.

“So it’s not just the war that’s happening in the Middle East and elsewhere. We have our own wars happening in the parish, and it impacts both primary and secondary [health] care because some of them may have been hospitalised. And then, even when they are discharged from the hospital, we have to continue with the dressing,” argued Dr Graham.

Regarding measles, Dr Graham pointed out that while several countries in North, Central, South, and Latin America all have cases, Jamaica does not have any.

“We have eliminated measles — and we want to keep it that way — but it depends on all of us, so it’s very important for us to make sure that we try to have at least 95 per cent measles coverage in our population. We have to stick with the mandate,” stated Dr Graham who pointed to the importance of having children vaccinated or immunised.

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