Officials from the Public Health Unit and the Environmental Health Division are uniting forces and forging an alliance with the community to reduce mosquito breeding.

Chief Environmental Health Officer Mr. Lionel Michael said “We want to take action at the community level to reduce mosquito breeding and mosquito breeding sites. We will be coming into communities with high mosquito indices to see how we can work together to reduce vector issues within those communities.”

The health officials will be seeking collaborations with the Sea Cow’s Bay, East End, Lower Estate, Huntum’s Ghut, Purcell and Baugher’s Bay communities to empower them with information and tools to manage the vector situation that continues to plague these communities.

National Epidemiologist, Ms. Harmonie Brewley-Massiah, said managing the mosquito indices is very important and lowers the risk of persons contracting vector borne diseases. “We are particularly concerned about Dengue Fever right now as the numbers continue to rise,” She said.

The first collaboration will be with the East End Community this Saturday and Sunday September 28 and 29 at the Francis Lettsome Primary School from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.  Topics to be discussed include understanding and preventing mosquito borne diseases, mosquito prevention and control measures and the importance of community involvement in mosquito control 

“We are encouraging the community to come and partner with us and share in this empowering occasion as we seek to promote awareness and build community capacity to manage the mosquito vector and diseases that may result. We invite full community participation as it is the only way that we can truly reduce our risk of disease and lower mosquito indices,” Ms. Brewley-Massiah said. 

The Ministry of Health and Social Development is committed to ensuring that all aspects of the environment with the potential to negatively impact the health of the population are managed efficiently to enable all persons in the BVI to attain and maintain optimal health and well-being.