As the number of dengue fever cases continue to rise, malaria, another mosquito transmitted illness, has shown up at a local hospital, according to Deputy Chief Medical Officer at the Ministry of Health Dr. Delon Brennen. However, Dr. Brennen said the individual stricken with malaria contracted the disease on a trip to Nigeria and recently returned to The Bahamas.
Dr. Brennen added that Bahamians have nothing to fear, as this case does not mean that it will spread locally.
He explained, though, that the mosquito that typically spreads malaria can be found here and thrives under the same conditions as the Aedes aegyptimosquito, which carries dengue fever.
"Much like our dengue cases, it (malaria) came in, in a similar manner," said Dr. Brennen, "except [the person] got bitten by a different type of mosquito. We do need to be protective of the people who come home with it and we need to ensure they aren't bitten."
According to Dr. Brennen, the malaria stricken person is being treated with medication.
Dr. Brennen explained that the four deaths that have occurred in The Bahamas and thought to be dengue related, first have to be definitively confirmed by both a laboratory test and autopsy results.
He said none of the cases has yet been confirmed as dengue related through both the laboratory results or an autopsy. Dr. Brennen said the Ministry of Health could know definitively by Monday if any of the four deaths were cause specifically because of dengue fever. Two of the people were airlifted outside of The Bahamas for medical treatment before they died, he said.
The region has been affected by high numbers of dengue fever with reports coming out of islands as far south as Trinidad and Tobago. News reports in Trinidad revealed that even Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar contracted the illness.
Brennen said the incessant heat and rain are likely to blame for the proliferation of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito and thus the high number of dengue fever cases. The Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) has asked all individuals experiencing dengue fever symptoms to contact the hospital on its hotline at 359-2929 in order to obtain the relevant information before coming to hospital.
Patients claim that the PMH hotline representative is only advising patients who have bleeding rashes to come into the hospital, as the facility does not have the capacity to treat all of the patients coming in with symptoms in addition to other emergency room patients. Aggressive mosquito fogging exercises have been carried out by the Department of Environmental Health since the Ministry of the Environment first got word of the first case of dengue fever last month, officials claim.
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