The Ministry of Health announced today that it has begun nationwide surveillance to control the population of two species of mosquitoes – Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus – which are known vectors of dengue in Belize, but which are also the host for an emerging ailment that is suspected to have sickened 180,000 people in Latin America and the Caribbean since the year began, with 5,000 confirmed cases and 21 deaths.

That emerging disease is chikungunya, also known as “chick-v” or “bend up” disease, which was discovered in Africa in the 1950s but which appeared in the Americas only last December, when the first case was found on the Caribbean island of St. Martin.

So far, no case of chikungunya has been reported in Belize, although a Belizean in Florida is reportedly among those already afflicted with the illness, which can cause lingering arthritis-like joint pain for more than a year. With the rainy season already here, health authorities have begun fogging, usually at dawn and dusk, with malathion – an organic insecticide sprayed from ultra-low-volume (ULV) fogging machines, mounted on pickup trucks for spraying in both urban and rural areas during the rainy season.

While there are fears in some circles that malathion is a dangerous cancer-causing pesticide, health officials said today that it is used in Belize in a “safe concentration.”

The fogging is supposed to kill off adult mosquitoes which live up to the meaning of their Latin name. Aedes is derived from the Greek word meaning “unpleasant.” Larvae are killed using Abate spray, another organic pesticide, containing temophos.

Director of Health Services Michael Pitts said today that chick-v has been reported in 19 countries in this region, including the Dominican Republic, where Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow is attending an official heads of government meeting of the Central American Integration System (Spanish acronym SICA).

“Over the last week, Salvador, a member country of SICA, has reported 1,200 suspected cases. Why I say member country of SICA is because Belize takes over presidency of SICA, and we know that chikungunya is an important agenda item in the SICA meetings being held this week,” Pitts said, noting that many migrants to Belize are from Salvador and move back and forth between the two countries.

French Guiana, Guadalupe, Haiti, St. Martin, Barbados, Dominica, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Turks and Caicos have all reported cases of chick-v.

Kim Bautista, Chief Operations – Vector Control, said that the reason for the rapid transmission across 28 territories is that the disease is carried by the two Aedes vectors previously mentioned. He said that Health officials are employing an integrated approach to vector control aimed at killing off as many of the mosquitoes as possible, and also at eradicating their breeding sites.

Bautista said that because the rainy season has begun, they have hired additional temporary workers to spray potential breeding sites. He encouraged those who are traveling to other countries where chick-v cases have been reported, to take precautions by sleeping under a net and using fly repellant.

Dr. Francis Murray, Focal Point – Communicable Diseases in the Ministry of Health, said that it takes anywhere from 1 to 12 days after someone is bitten by a host mosquito to develop symptoms – the most telling ones being severe arthritis pain, mostly in the small joints, a rash more severe than that caused by dengue, and prostrating pain. The illness, which can sicken a person only once in their lifetime, also brings on a fever.

Murray encourages social distancing by anyone who may contract the illness, which means that infected persons avoid being in situations where they can pass on the illness to others. An ill person can pass on the disease to another person during the first seven days, so that if a mosquito has a “blood meal” at the expense of someone sick with chick-v, it can pass on the disease to a healthy person by subsequently biting that person.

Several countries in the Americas have reported imported cases, meaning persons who contracted the disease in one country then traveled while ill to another country: they include 57 in the US, 2 in Panama, 6 in Cuba, and 11 in Brazil, Pitts reported.

Francis Westby, technical advisor for dengue, told the media that 80% of what can be done to control the population of those unpleasant mosquitoes can be done by the general public. He said that while the Ministry of Health has activated its mosquito control program, it won’t be effective unless the members of the public keep their surroundings clean.

According to DHS Pitts, 2 of 9 sanitary districts in Belize City are “hot spots” – Port Loyola and Lake Independence, and old tires, drums and vats are common culprits.

Westby said that simple steps can be taken to help, such as putting just a tablespoon of used cooking oil, left over from cooking, in nearby stagnant drains.

He said that the Ministry is currently fogging in the 6 districts and they hope to expand “larviciding” efforts to kill mosquito larvae which thrive in stagnant water.

They also plan to increase health education activities, and a media blitz is planned for next week, when they expect to showcase the addition of new vehicles to their fleet. These – coupled with the receipt of 6 new foggers, bringing the total to 22 – will be deployed across the country in an attempt to control the host insect which could trigger a chikungunya wave across Belize. Westby stressed that the public needs to do its share.

As for the treatment of abandoned properties, which not only mar the City’s landscape but which are a public health risk, DHS Pitts said that they will work with municipalities to undertake the proper cleanup and spraying of those properties.

Pitts noted that the measures to control chikungunya are similar to those for dengue. He said that whereas they cannot eradicate the Aedes mosquitoes, which transmit both diseases, they can mitigate the problem.

The DHS reported that although dengue tests for 2014 have increased almost threefold over the same period in 2013, the number of confirmed cases have remained virtually steady, at 200.

Pitts said that dengue began to be established in the region around 1981.