![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
The discussion on dengue still rages on. People are concerned and they should be. Dengue is not some thing you want to have.
There have been very lengthy discussions of it on TTOL.
http://www.traveltalkonline.com/for
Israel from BVI has offered a lot of helpful information.
This is his blog.
http://woodshedenvironment.wordpress.co
He gives a lot of up to date information on dengue throughout the Caribbean.
But let's talk about St. Maarten.
That's where I live.
Dengue on St. Maarten is what I want to know about. And I want to know what the government is doing to combat these mosquitoes.
Ah, but that is what is hard to find out.
To say that the reporting on the Dutch side is less than reliable is putting it mildly. And I am not sure about the French side either.
A recent article in The Daily Herald from 1/10/08 states that we are still on "pre-dengue alert", whatever that means.
http://thedailyherald.com/news/daily/k1
It also states that as of the end of November, 18 lab cases of dengue have been confirmed.
Eighteen? Doesn't sound like many, does it?
Then on Saturday January 12, 2008, I read in the same paper that the French side has 110 suspected cases as of January but only 13 confirmed.
Are you asking the same question as I am? If they suspect 110 cases, how in the world are only 13 cases confirmed?
Is it that hard to confirm? I may be wrong but doesn't a simple blood test confirm dengue?
So are people not being referred for blood tests?
Couldn't the article read something like of 110 suspected cases, 97 were ruled out and 13 were confirmed.
Shouldn't everyone be sent for a blood test if there is dengue suspected?
I just don't quite get it!
The last article also stated that suspected cases were down but the epidemic is still on, which brings me to another question.
How can you have an epidemic on one side of the island but only a pre-epidemic on the other side?
I know. I know.. Different governments.......different ways of reporting and assessing.
I still wonder how much is really being done to fight off this damn mosquito.
Here she is.
Cute, isn't she?
Oh yea, one important thing. She only bites during the day. Her cousins are the ones out at night but they don't carry dengue.
- Mood:
confused
Comments
Israel
I put up the link for the article on 1/10/2008.
the other one was also in The Daily Herald but I do not have an online link for it.
it was in Saturday's edition..1/12/2008...not the 18th.. sorry about that.. I'll change it on the blog...
Let me quote more from that later article, stated from Marigot, French sidde:
"The number of clinically suspected dengue cases went down in the last weeks of December 2007 and the first week of January, but there is no change to the current epidemic status on the French side, a report in St. Martin's Week stated.
The figure is estimated at 110 suspected cases as of the first week in January and 750 since the beginning of the epidemic in the second week of November.
Since the beginning of December the number of hospitalised cases has increased by 4, bringing the total up to 13 biologically confirmed hospitalised cases. The patients include 4 children and 9 adults, six of whom were in serious condition.
The predominant virus serotype since the rainy season has begun has been DEN-1. However, serotypes DEN-2 and DEN-4 are also circulating......
St, Barths has been in a pre-alert phase since mid-November and DEN-1 is the predominant serotype. 4 adults have been hospitalised there, 3 of whom were in serious condition, but no more biologically confirmed cases have been hospitalised since mid-December. 30 suspected cases were registered during the first week of January.
The committee of experts for infectious diseases plans to meet next week to assess the situation on both islands."
Thanks much.
Israel
Steph the artist.
I think you are exactly right..many cases just like yours go unreported.
However, anyone working for a business here is insured by SVB and can get diagnosed with no expense.
Being an artist and working on your own and having no insurance is a different issue.
living without screens is something many do however.
Traditional in ST.Maarten bat caves were documented and protected but much of this information has been lost over the years and deemed irrelevant. Bats consume about 2000 mosquitoes in one night while also contributing as an indicator of the natural health of the environment as when pollution increases bats and amphibians are the first organisms to leave a area. Some caves like the ones found in pelican have been destroyed by improper management of island resources which could be managed for additional income. The price of lack of knowledge and love of money by development has beared some ugly fruit in my home land. The revenue created by managing these areas would have helped with the new incentive of the Rastafarian foundation and many small farmers on the island for healthy food production as well. Guano being one of the by products of bats which some feed on fruit as well is one of the most expensive and fertile fertilizers.
Bats and amphibians are some are most sensitive animals to noise(a form of pollution), chemicals and pollutants. These organisms die and move on webs are disturbed more information on these can be found in the readers and journals of nature. The system used to monitor impacts of development in ST.Maarten and the affects have been ignored for quite some time.
Better information of biology and control pesticides be used in my country should be taught in open seminars to increase public awareness of how to naturally respect and control outbreaks and why they are caused.
I cannot put all the information i would like due fact that I am writing from the Campus of the F.I.U University while on vacation as I ran into this blog. My studies are in the Netherlands and the covers these problems in Sustainable Tourism. This post is not meant to discourage anyone who is trying to make ST.Maarten the paradise that I remembered when I leave but to help them.
Please feel free to contact me at Darkrain1347@gmail.com if more information is needed as I only posted part of the solution as past discussion of articles for helping St.Maarten was not heeded and used not in the benefit of my people of SXM. The midge control information please feel free to contact me as i will write a next company that I am looking to do my stage at for additional information on this problem.Thank you for reading
"Lets Keep St.Maarten friendly beautiful paradise for everyone who calls it home."
additional information
Rachael Freeman Long, s.d., Use of Bats to Enhance Insect Pest Control, University of California extension
http://alfalfa.ucdavis.edu/+symposium/pr