Health Professionals from SICA Discuss Issues of Vector Control in the Region
Health personnel from SICA countries, including the Dominican Republic, are here in Belize. At this first meeting, the technocrats are discussing issues of vector control in the region and will draft a plan for entomology as well as look at ways to strengthen human resources since the number of experts is dwindling. Their recommendations will then be presented to the Council of Ministers. Here is Duane Moody with a report.
Duane Moody, Reporting
A four-day regional workshop of a technical committee of the Council of Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic is taking place at the Biltmore Plaza in Belize City. The Council is an arm of the Central American Integration System, better known as SICA, for which Belize currently holds its presidency. Health professionals from the eight member states gathered to discuss various areas of priority for the region. The technical committee will advise COMISCA on matters of vector control.
Kim Bautista
Kim Bautista, Chief of Operations, Vector Control Unit
“Belize is hosting the first meeting of this technical committee with three main objectives to confirm the makeup of this technical committee, to define the priority areas of action to develop a strategic plan for the region and thirdly to hear from member states what is the current situation with respect to entomology in the respective countries and identify areas of priority that COMISCA can find the necessary support—whether it be technical support, training of human resources or things like that.”
The most common issue coming out of the region is that there are limited entomologists in the different programmes to study the classification, life cycle, distribution, physiology, behaviour, ecology and population dynamics of insects. This, Vector Control Chief of Operations Kim Bautista, says is needed to address mosquitoes and the effectiveness of pesticides being used in for public health and agriculture.
Kim Bautista
“There are medical entomologists in the area of vector control; there’s general entomologist that work in the field of both vector control and agriculture and it is a dying breed. A lot of these persons with the expertise are retiring; many have left the programme and there isn’t a proper succession plan for most of these countries and so we see whereby within the area of entomology there are things which are important such as the monitoring for insecticide resistance. We need to know that the chemicals that we are using actually work because it is one of the costly components for vector control. In Belize, for example, you find that that is limited to non-existent even in the field of agriculture. The Ministry of Health started over the past year or two to work with other agencies to collect baseline information and that. So I can tell you studies done in 2017 locally, shows that malathion is still effective for the control of aedes aegyti in the country. But that is just one area that countries need to strengthen. But we also need to look at the distribution of vectors in the country; for example, which mosquito vectors exist in what areas of the country. Factor into that the topography, the climate and what you have are indicators that will enable us to determine the level of risk in various areas of the country.”
The workshop concludes on Friday, and Bautista says that the objective is to draft a regional strategic plan for entomology.
Kim Bautista
“By the end of this week we should have a strategic plan with all the major line of action and so it will be a draft document at this point. So we will continue to work with COMISCA and this technical committee on this document.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
