00:00Trinidad and Tobago's acting chief medical officer is warning that weaknesses in disease surveillance are creating what she describes as
00:08a geographic blind spot in the country's fight against communicable diseases.
00:12The Tobago House of Assembly is operating with minimal Hansen's infrastructure and most concerningly we don't have the active contract
00:20tracing that we would like.
00:21We cannot claim to be on a path to elimination while a significant portion of our Twin Island nation remains
00:29a surveillance blind spot.
00:30Dr. Janine St. Bernard made the remarks during the Pan American Health Organization's Elimination Initiative mission, a week-long program
00:39aimed at helping countries accelerate efforts to eliminate communicable diseases.
00:44And furthermore, we are also battling clinical and diagnostic decay.
00:49Due to low clinical suspicion in primary care, cases are being diagnosed too late and that leads to a permanent
00:56grade 2 disability.
00:58And of course, this is a failure in our early warning system.
01:01Our labs are also struggling with over-reliance on outdated staining methods.
01:05We have an urgent technical requirement for bacilloscopy, refresher courses specifically in cold staining and antimicrobial resistance.
01:14Health Minister Dr. Lacram Bodo acknowledged the challenges.
01:19CMO, you mentioned the bottlenecks and, of course, you mentioned the antibiotic law.
01:24And I want to invite you to meet with me early as possible, perhaps later this week, so we can
01:30discuss, you know, how we can treat with those bottlenecks going forward.
01:35So, I also, at that meeting, would want you, want us to discuss how we can go forward with THA
01:43and Tobago.
01:44And that's a gap, of course, that you identified and mentioned.
01:48Despite the concerns, Dr. St. Bernard pointed to significant progress in the fight against dengue.
01:53She said confirmed dengue cases have fallen dramatically from 1,328 cases in 2024 to just three confirmed cases so
02:04far this year.
02:06But she warns the outlook is less encouraging for malaria.
02:10Our malaria data tells a different, more cautionary story.
02:13We saw a jump from seven cases in 2024 to 17 last year.
02:19Most critically, look at the breakdown.
02:22Twelve of those cases were local or introduced transmission, while five were imported.
02:28There have been eight confirmed cases this year.
02:31This is our warning sign.
02:33Persistent cross-border mobility ensures that localized resurgence remains a constant lurking threat.
02:40We cannot afford to be complacent in our success with dengue.
02:44We must maintain high alert vigilance against imported cases to prevent these small sparks from becoming an uncontainable wildfire.
02:54The PAHO Elimination Initiative mission continues until July 31st,
02:59with officials expected to develop strategies to strengthen disease surveillance, improve early detection,
03:05and accelerate the elimination of communicable diseases in Trinidad and Tobago.
03:10Orvishita Wari, Rubnarain, TV6 News.
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