Persons with Zika Symptoms Not Seeking Medical Attention

Marvin Manzanero

While the ministry has focused primarily on pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, Doctor Marvin Manzanero says there is concern that persons exhibiting the zika symptoms are not seeking medical attention.

Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services

“People are just not going to health facilities. You have to understand that we are not doing routine testing. You would want to capture the numbers because spikes are going up because doctors have started to note, clinically, when the patient has zika and we are not going to test everybody unless you are pregnant or high risk. The effort here has to be a collective one. We have to be at the forefront, I think we have recognized that; that perhaps we have to find more dynamic ways or more innovative ways of trying to get the message across to the general population. It is unfortunate then that our concern for zika only when you are talking about a crisis situation, when you want to link it to microcephaly, when you want to link it to Guillian-Barre, but the general norm is that people are not seemingly overly concerned about zika. So I think it is an ongoing educational process of trying to ensure that everybody is on board and is aware of the potential implications.”