There are no reported cases of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus in Barbados and officials want to keep it that way.
To that end, senior health sister at the Edgar Cochrane Polyclinic Cicely Destang is reminding Barbadians that the “litter you dump today can impact on your health tomorrow”.
Destang said that despite all the public service messages they had out there, Barbadians had become generally careless about how they disposed of garbage.
“I don’t think they care about their health anymore, they think that their health is somebody else’s responsibility. Even within the clinics we do health education lectures and you get people saying, ‘I ain’t come hey fuh dah’. They say it to you and they come into the clinic and they eat and drop their garbage on the floor, and walk out of the clinic and leave the garbage on the floor . . . . Until it hits home, then I don’t think that we would be aware how bad dumping garbage is,” she said.
There was some positive news though, as Destang reported she had seen an increase in movement with more people walking and running along the highways and byways. She said exercise was something they encouraged. (YB)
