VICTORIA, Seychelles — The Ministry of Health is advising members of the public to protect themselves against mosquito bites and to report to their health centres or medical practitioners if they have any symptoms of dengue fever. The warning follows a rise in the number of reported cases of dengue fever on Praslin, as recorded by the National Surveillance System.
Since the start of the year, the Seychelles Hospital laboratory has carried out 1,600 tests on Mahé, of which 16 tested positive. A total of 206 individuals were tested for dengue on Praslin, and 36 were positive, representing around 17 percent of those who took the test. Among those who were infected in the past four to five weeks, six were admitted to hospital to receive care, and no lives were lost.
“So our focus is on Praslin because clearly there is a cluster there. To stop this, we need to look at our environment and what we are doing that allows mosquitoes to reproduce and spread dengue,” said Dr Louange, adding that public awareness was vital. According to her, the Aedes albopictus is the mosquito spreading dengue fever in Seychelles. “Dengue fever is a sickness caused by a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. It is not new to Seychelles as we have been talking about dengue since 2014. We have had this epidemic in the Indian Ocean since 2014-2015, until now dengue never really went away and other island nations such as Reunion, Mauritius, Comoros and Madagascar within the Indian Ocean are also facing the same problem.” The ministry is rolling out additional vector control measures on Praslin, including fogging and the removal of breeding sites.
