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Island battles apathy in bid to beat virus
From Nita Bhalla In Port Louis
EACH day at dawn, men in gas masks and white overalls, cradling containers filled with insecticides, spread out across Mauritius spraying roadsides, gutters and around homes. Trucks pass through the island’s towns and villages, stopping to collect rubbish, while health experts make door-to-door calls on households.
Since January, the government has embarked on a nationwide clean-up and awareness campaign in an attempt to rid the paradise island of a crippling mosquito-borne virus which is sweeping across several Indian Ocean islands off the southeast coast of Africa.
Chikungunya fever, which has no cure or vaccine, has infected around 190,000 people across the region, the vast majority in the French island of Réunion – where 150 have died –but also in Mauritius, the Seychelles, Mayotte and Madagascar.
But while authorities, and even private companies, mobilise resources to stem the spread of the virus, much of Mauritius’s 1.2 million population remain apathetic.
“The first thing to do is to mobilise the population,” said Pierre Formenty from the World Health Organisation.
“You can buy hundreds of fogging [spraying] machines, but if you do not develop a ‘no mosquito’ culture, then all your efforts will be in vain.”
The tropical virus, first recognised in Tanzania in 1952, is marked by fever, a severe rash and extremely painful joints. Although it is not considered fatal, it can weaken the immune system and allow other, more deadly, diseases to set in.
The virus is transmitted through the bite of the Asian tiger mosquito, so-called because of its striped appearance and aggressive behaviour.
19 March 2006
<center>http://www.sundayherald.com/54724
</center>
EACH day at dawn, men in gas masks and white overalls, cradling containers filled with insecticides, spread out across Mauritius spraying roadsides, gutters and around homes. Trucks pass through the island’s towns and villages, stopping to collect rubbish, while health experts make door-to-door calls on households.
Since January, the government has embarked on a nationwide clean-up and awareness campaign in an attempt to rid the paradise island of a crippling mosquito-borne virus which is sweeping across several Indian Ocean islands off the southeast coast of Africa.
Chikungunya fever, which has no cure or vaccine, has infected around 190,000 people across the region, the vast majority in the French island of Réunion – where 150 have died –but also in Mauritius, the Seychelles, Mayotte and Madagascar.
But while authorities, and even private companies, mobilise resources to stem the spread of the virus, much of Mauritius’s 1.2 million population remain apathetic.
“The first thing to do is to mobilise the population,” said Pierre Formenty from the World Health Organisation.
“You can buy hundreds of fogging [spraying] machines, but if you do not develop a ‘no mosquito’ culture, then all your efforts will be in vain.”
The tropical virus, first recognised in Tanzania in 1952, is marked by fever, a severe rash and extremely painful joints. Although it is not considered fatal, it can weaken the immune system and allow other, more deadly, diseases to set in.
The virus is transmitted through the bite of the Asian tiger mosquito, so-called because of its striped appearance and aggressive behaviour.
19 March 2006
<center>http://www.sundayherald.com/54724
</center>