Dear Editor,
I am a Jamaican formerly employed to the public health system in Thailand. I see news reports over the last few days highlighting an outbreak of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). I must express my absolute shock and dismay with the way in which the disease outbreak is being handled. I am particularly concerned at what appears to be an attempt by the Jamaican health ministry to water down the significance of the disease.
This is especially so when the health authorities should be well aware of the fact that the disease has led to countless deaths of children throughout the globe. Just a few years ago in Cambodia, health officials identified Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, while investigating the deaths of at least 52 children there. Other cases exist throughout south-east Asia.
In the space of a few days, the numbers of schools in Jamaica affected have moved from 9 to over 53. That's more than quintupling the first set of schools affected. In any sane society, the health ministry would have moved to quickly shut down all schools within a specified geographical area. This is essential to rapidly slowing down the spread of the disease and as such isolate it.
Five years ago one of the biggest HFMD outbreaks in Thailand history saw the Government quickly shutting down dozens of kindergartens and primary schools for several days. This arrested the rate of disease spread and allowed the Government to disinfect all schools.
Dr Fenton Ferguson, Jamaica's minister of health, must be the worst in the world. He ignored appeals from even his political opponent in his constituency Delano Seiveright, the then spokesman for health Dr Ken Baugh, and the wider public by initially downplaying the chikungunya epidemic. Later when he sought to play catch up it was too late; countless Jamaicans were riddled with pain and we don't know how many died. That he was allowed to stay on as minister and allowed yet another outbreak to go on with such casual ease is frightening and boggles the mind.
Jennifer Chin-Hue
Asoke, Bangkok, Thailand
jchinhue@hotmail.com
Health ministry doesn't seem to be taking disease outbreak seriously
-->
I am a Jamaican formerly employed to the public health system in Thailand. I see news reports over the last few days highlighting an outbreak of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). I must express my absolute shock and dismay with the way in which the disease outbreak is being handled. I am particularly concerned at what appears to be an attempt by the Jamaican health ministry to water down the significance of the disease.
This is especially so when the health authorities should be well aware of the fact that the disease has led to countless deaths of children throughout the globe. Just a few years ago in Cambodia, health officials identified Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which causes hand, foot and mouth disease, while investigating the deaths of at least 52 children there. Other cases exist throughout south-east Asia.
In the space of a few days, the numbers of schools in Jamaica affected have moved from 9 to over 53. That's more than quintupling the first set of schools affected. In any sane society, the health ministry would have moved to quickly shut down all schools within a specified geographical area. This is essential to rapidly slowing down the spread of the disease and as such isolate it.
Five years ago one of the biggest HFMD outbreaks in Thailand history saw the Government quickly shutting down dozens of kindergartens and primary schools for several days. This arrested the rate of disease spread and allowed the Government to disinfect all schools.
Dr Fenton Ferguson, Jamaica's minister of health, must be the worst in the world. He ignored appeals from even his political opponent in his constituency Delano Seiveright, the then spokesman for health Dr Ken Baugh, and the wider public by initially downplaying the chikungunya epidemic. Later when he sought to play catch up it was too late; countless Jamaicans were riddled with pain and we don't know how many died. That he was allowed to stay on as minister and allowed yet another outbreak to go on with such casual ease is frightening and boggles the mind.
Jennifer Chin-Hue
Asoke, Bangkok, Thailand
jchinhue@hotmail.com
Health ministry doesn't seem to be taking disease outbreak seriously
-->