By Chantalé Fletcher
THERE were very low levels of endemic diseases due to the Public Health Regulations being enforced during 2020 and 2021.
These diseases include dengue, influenza and gastroenteritis.
This was revealed by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram at the virtual media conference of the Ministry of Health on Wednesday.
Dr Parasram said, “We need to keep a very close eye on it now that restrictions have been lifted to a great extent to see if there will be a resurgence of our endemic diseases over the coming weeks and months.”
He said that an endemic referred to the usual or constant presence of disease in a given population or geographic area with a seasonal pattern.
Dr Parasram made a comparison to three diseases which have been endemic in T&T.
He said, “Influenza is the endemic channel which was created by taking data for the previous five years to create different colours. Green meant the control was successful of that particular disease; the yellow portion was a security portion which showed an increase, but not alarming at that point; orange is alarming and beyond that, you enter an epidemic phase.”
Dr Parasram said influenza would follow a seasonal pattern which was October to May in the Northern Hemisphere.
He said, “But if you see something enter the pink section, it means that it was beyond normal for that particular period.”
The CMO added, “There was an extremely low level of influenza in 2021 which mirrored what happened in 2020 and it could be attributed to the Public Health measures that were in place for Covid-19, but it continues to be very low levels, going all across.”
Dr Parasram added gastroenteritis remained at low levels in 2021, which was very similar to influenza.
He stated there were also some upsurges and down surges from the orange portion in previous years, which was linked to the opening and closing of schools or changes in fluctuations of different seasons.
In addition, gastroenteritis also increased in the rainy season due to floods.
Dr Parasram stated dengue remained an endemic disease with low levels in the country for 2020 not 2021.
However, he added there would be an increase in Dengue cases in the rainy season with a dip in between
