FOLLOWING three years of intense tests and study by researchers at The University of the West Indies (UWI), the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) now has two chemicals, new to Jamaica, to add to its arsenal of mosquito-control tools that it says will make the country relatively safe from disease outbreaks for at least another four years.

The development follows on the engagement of the university by the ministry in 2017 which led to the formation of the Mosquito Control Research Unit, with the intention that researchers would provide the ministry with tangible scientific tools to ensure that vector control in Jamaica is enhanced.

A further boost was received through the United States Agency for International Development-funded Zika AIRS Project (ZAP), which was mandated to improve vector control within the country.

“Should there be an outbreak, the ministry can reach for these. The Ministry of Health has the tools due to its engagement of scientists. We should be safe. Based on the fact that they have put in place a unit to give them consistent information, we should be safe for quite some time,” Dr Sheena Francis, research fellow at The UWI's Natural Products Institute, and who also designed the study, told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

She, however, noted that this did not mean the country had seen the back of Zika, chikungunya, and dengue, as mosquitoes are known to develop resistance to chemicals over time, resulting in either the chemicals not killing them or their taking a much longer time to die.

“This is not a one-time test; every two to three years it has to be repeated — so it's not that we shouldn't be seeing them any time soon. We live in a tropical country and we have the Aedes aegypti mosquito, but the ministry is playing its part and the scientists are playing their part to guide the solutions for the country,” Dr Francis told the Sunday Observer.

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