Environmental Health Department concerned over increased mosquito breeding due to increased rainfall

​Dominica’s Environmental Health Department has expressed real concern over increased mosquito breeding across the Island, due to increased rainfall in recent times.
 
Chief Environmental Health Officer Ferdinia Carbon said ‘When we have an increase in rainfall, we also get an increase in mosquito breeding, and we have often had outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases, during the rainy season’.
 
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season is now underway, and the Chief Environmental Health Officer says her Unit already recorded outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases during the rainy season.
 
She said, “That is usually our peak time for diseases that are endemic like dengue. We saw a few cases a couple of weeks ago, so we are on the lookout for an increase in mosquito-borne diseases”.
 
Carbon said, the breeding of mosquitoes in water drums is an even greater danger during the Hurricane season. She added, “We know we now have an increase in storage of water, we have some communities that do not always have water in the taps, and we have seen persons increasing the amount of storage, especially in the 45-gallon drums, which is the most prolific breeder. We are concerned that there will be an increase in mosquitoes, which might lead to an increase in mosquito-borne diseases”.