Las Flores Woman Infected in Belize

Marvin Manzanero

The first suspected case of CHIK-V was believed to have been imported into the country since Las Flores is a predominantly immigrant community. While that case was never confirmed, the diagnosis of the woman indicates that she was infected here in Belize.  It has been a little over a month however, since the specimen was sent for testing.

Via Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Interim Head, Epidemiology Unit

“This case that has been confirmed seems to be an autochthonous case because she hasn’t had any travel history.  The first suspect-slash-probable case that we had was an imported case, but this case that came back positive from CARPHA is a local person.  It’s a person that hasn’t traveled then.”

Isani Cayetano

“Is there any other word of advice, if I may, with regards to concerns that are coming out of this diagnosis with the general public?”

Via Phone: Dr. Marvin Manzanero

“I guess it’s, folks need to continue to do their share of ensuring that there’s no breeding sites in their communities because it’s a collective response.  I don’t think that the efforts will go down any further.  It should continue to be scaled up particularly as the rains have started over this last week.  So the thing is just being on the alert, we do expect that chikungunya cases will follow the pattern as dengue which means that from now until the end of the calendar year we don’t expect any major outbreaks but we are still going to continue our activities.”

The best means of preventing CHIK-V is overall mosquito control and the avoidance of bites by any infected mosquitoes.  There is no specific treatment for the fever but medications can be used to reduce symptoms.