The Chikungunya virus is being spread by the aedes aegypti mosquito

A senior official of the Health Ministry says the Chikungunya virus is rapidly spreading, moving from Berbice and now infecting people across the country.

“The virus has moved from the Region Six, Berbice, Canje area; it has indeed begun to spread and it is just time before other parts of the country become fully affected. It has begun to spread, it is spreading and it only will get worse… just give it some time,” the official said.

Though there are only 31 confirmed cases thus far, it was noted that this does not necessarily reflect the true extent of the affected persons in the country since many may still be unaware of the virus, or may have not yet accessed medical treatment.

“The numbers will definitely be increasing; there is no doubt about that, like I said, just give it some time,” the Health Ministry official declared.

Opposition Leader David Granger had said: “The Government knows very well what’s happening, why you think it’s fogging, it’s fogging late.”

He told media operatives at a recent A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) press conference on Friday that while some may think that a crisis is looming, the catastrophe is already here.

“Only when the Health Minister was put on the spot then he admitted that the results from lab in Trinidad started to show increasing threat,” Granger said.

Spread

Following the discovery of the first Georgetown victim, who hails from the North Ruimveldt area, Dr Ramsaran had stated that the virus was restricted to the Berbice area and the victim was infected due to the fact that he had worked in the affected areas in Berbice.

He had rebuffed claims that the vector borne disease had spread to the other regions. Previously, there were 19 confirmed cases. However, 12 other cases were confirmed on Tuesday afternoon following the return of the samples which were sent for testing at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad and Tobago.

Of the 150 samples which were sent to be tested for confirmation of the vector-borne disease, 12 thus far were positive. Seven of the 12 additional confirmed cases of the vector-borne disease, Chikungunya, are said to originate from other places outside of the affected Canje, Berbice area.

According to the information received by this publication, the Chikungunya virus has made its way to other parts of the country with confirmed cases coming from the capital city, Georgetown and other parts of Region Four, as well as Regions Three and Five.

According to the official, three cases have been recorded in West Berbice, Bush Lot, Bath Settlement and Number Nine Village; one each from Ithaca and Mahaicony; one from North Ruimveldt; and one from Crane, West Coast Demerara, Region Three.

While these cases would have been recorded out of the initial affected areas, it is still unclear whether these individuals were visitors to the areas or whether the virus has been spreading despite the efforts to restrict it to the Ancient County since the data is being analysed by Government Epidemiologist, Morris Edwards.