By Sue-Ann Wayow
AS a result of the implemented public health protocols to curb the spread of Covid-19, there has been a significant decrease in the number of people contracting other viral illnesses including influenza and dengue.
On Wednesday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram said, “The public health measures have gone a long way to actually decrease the incidence of other infectious diseases.”
He added, “Those diseases as well respond well to the wearing of masks, they respond well to washing your hands.”
Dr Parasram was speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual media conference.
“We have a decrease in the general incidence of viral illness as well as gastroenteritis across the population,” he said.
As of December 11, there were 19 suspected cases of Dengue for the year. Last year, for the same period, there were 84, he said.
Dr Parasram said, “If you go back a few years ago, before these instances would have happened, for dengue, we would have had about 3,000, 4,000 even as high as 5,000 cases of dengue in the preceding years.
“Similarly with influenza we have 179 suspected cases of influenza as of December 11 compared to 853 last year which is significantly low. If you go back into 2018 to 2019, you will find that those numbers go into the thousands again.”
He said data from mid-2020 showed the decreasing number of such illnesses being reported.
