DESTINY JOHNSON
Journal Staff Writer

With more than 50 people now infected with dengue fever in the country, Minister of Health and
Wellness Michael Darville again urged residents to ensure that they do not have any breeding
grounds for mosquitoes around their homes.
“Well, there’s 52 cases in The Bahamas now, and of course, I said before, we are concerned about
any rise in cases,” Mr. Darville told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve been looking at the demographic associated with the increase, and over the weekend, we
had an additional 19 or 20 cases added to the 30 cases that we had before then.
“We’re once again telling the Bahamian people to look at your surroundings, ensure that you
don’t have no buckets of water lying around that can cause a growth of the Aedes Aegypti
mosquitoes.
“We’re up fogging, but of course fogging only knocks what’s airborne, and if you have these
receptacles filled with water around the home, you continue to breed.
“So, the Department of Environmental Health is working very closely with the ministry to really
get the message out and to be very aggressive with the cases that we do find in the residence
where we go in and we do a swat check and fix the situation surrounding.”
Although cases are mostly confined to New Povidence, there are currently three cases in Grand
Bahama.
“One of the things I’d like to say is, as we speak, there’s about six people in hospital with dengue,
and it’s very important to us to let the population know that dengue can be very serious and it’s
important to, once again, execute the appropriate measure,” he continued.
“Also, this week we found cases in Grand Bahama and so I believe we have three confirmed
cases in Grand Bahama with the possibility of an admission if that’s not the case or maybe two.
“We are upping our investigation and fogging as well as going from door to door with those
cases that we do find to ensure that we make sure the environment is protected, so there’s no
increased breeding.”
Dr. Darville also cleared up reports from the media last week that majority of the individuals
have been getting type three dengue which is most severe.
He said type three is not the most severe unless the individual was infected with Type 1 and Type
2 dengue previously.

“The possibility of the reaction being more severe is the case. The majority of cases that we
found in New Providence at this particular time is Type 3,” Dr. Darville said.
“We believe from the last dengue outbreak in The Bahamas of any severe proportion in 2011, the
serial types were 1 and 2. So, if there’s an immunological profile in the country, it is for 1 and 2,
which means there could have been some people exposed to dengue with 1 or 2 and had very
mild symptoms and didn’t know you had dengue.
“Then, there are some who are exposed and have severe forms of the manifestation of dengue.
“The reality is if you’ve been exposed to 1 and 2 and you’re exposed to 3, the possibility of you
having a more severe reaction exists. But it is not that type 3 is more severe than type 1 and 2.
That’s not what I really said. I noticed the media reported it that way.”
Symptoms of dengue fever include headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, rash, aches and pains such
as eye pain – typically behind the eyes, muscle, bone and joint pain.
Persons experiencing fever and two or more of these symptoms should see a health care provider.