IN JAMAICA: Country to know by weekend if suspected case is chikungunya....This would mean that Jamaica would be added to the list of 28 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin American region, as of July 14, that have reported cases of chikungunya, with 5,227 cases confirmed.

 BY ANIKA RICHARDS Observer staff reporter richardsai@@jamaicaobserver.com  Thursday, July 17, 2014   

 THE country should know by the end of this week if the suspected case of chikungunya, which was reported late Tuesday, is in fact the island's first imported case.

This would mean that Jamaica would be added to the list of 28 countries and territories in the Caribbean and Latin American region, as of July 14, that have reported cases of chikungunya, with 5,227 cases confirmed.

Neville Graham, director of communications at the Ministry of Health, told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that there should be a confirmation by Friday.

The ministry, late Tuesday, issued a news release saying its surveillance system detected the suspected imported case of the chikungunya virus, and that it involves an individual who travelled from an affected country and fell ill. The individual had screening tests done at a private laboratory, which indicated the illness, and a sample was sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for confirmation.

Graham was yesterday unwilling to disclose the name of the "affected country" or whether the individual is Jamaican, offering instead that, as a matter of protocol, they would not be disclosing any identifiers.

The release Tuesday quoted chief medical officer, Dr Kevin Harvey, as saying: "This does not indicate local spread of the virus, and we continue to monitor persons living in and around areas visited by the individual. We have heightened our vector-control activities to reduce the possibility of local spread."

This was reiterated by Graham yesterday.

"Even as we speak, we are monitoring the suspected case; we have activated our investigation processes where we check on places the person has been," said Graham, adding that the people this individual has come into contact with were also being monitored.

The health ministry said Tuesday that it has been putting measures in place for more than two years in anticipation of the chikungunya virus reaching the island.

"In terms of public education, with sharpening our surveillance mechanisms, and that involved training persons who were involved in surveillance apparatus, it had to do with bringing more health professionals up to speed about what to look for in recognising the disease and any treatment protocols that there may be.

"It had to deal with sensitising all our stakeholders, especially internal stakeholders, about the presence of the disease and what to do about it," Graham explained. more