DENGUE FEVER

mauritian people have to be educated around not dumping their litter on wasteland. They are provided bins but still they don't use it. I noticed this happens a lot in coastal areas when people rent for the weekend and there is a lot of noise and litter pollution. the govt should ensure landlords are fined for littering and land proprietors keep their land clean. also local authorities are powerless. their customer service is appalling.
what do others think.

kamla naik wrote:

mauritian people have to be educated around not dumping their litter on wasteland. They are provided bins but still they don't use it. I noticed this happens a lot in coastal areas when people rent for the weekend and there is a lot of noise and litter pollution. the govt should ensure landlords are fined for littering and land proprietors keep their land clean. also local authorities are powerless. their customer service is appalling.
what do others think.

This is very true. The Aëdes aegypti mosquito which is responsible for the transmission of Dengue proliferates in places like vacant lots where garbage accumulates, sources of standing (stagnant) water are notorious breeding grounds for the mosquito.

That said, wow only 60 reported cases I don't think you're going to get much better than that anyway. Here in Brazil we have 5.3 thousand confirmed cases just this year (already double last years figures) and there have been 11 deaths. The drastic figures here are a direct result of people not clearing vacant lots, throwing garbage everywhere and not removing sources of standing water. Government spraying programs which were quite common all across the country in the past seem to have been completely abandoned. I certainly have never seen anyone spraying in several years now. In the past this was a monthly event in every neighborhood all over the country.

So just look to Brazil, it should be a wake-up call for Mauritians as to just how bad things get if you don't start doing something serious now to control the problem.

Cheers,
James
Expat-blog Experts Team

I would like to add that this Dengue Fever is extremely dangerous, a close colleague of mine died some years ago in Sri Lanka, he was in a coma for 2 weeks, dehydrating rapidly, he was given blood transfusions daily in the attempt to keep him alive, sadly he passed away, this very young strong man fell victim to this Aëdes mosquito, he was an athlete a rugby player and only 28 years old, don't be fooled because you think this little mosquito has no power over you, he will without doubt, knock you clean off your feet and may even take your life, The company we worked for provided Quinine tablets, sprayed the entire area with Deet and did everything possible to protect us.
Today there is a medication called ODOMOS, produced in India, it's available in most Pharmacy's in tropical and hot countries, and its not expensive to buy, keep a tube with you and use it early evenings. by far the best mosquito repellent I have ever used.

Actually there are 4 separate and distinct types of Dengue, the most serious being Dengue Hemmorahagic Fever which is deadly. Classic Dengue is not usually fatal, except in cases where individuals are already in debilitated states resulting from other illnesses, very young children and the elderly.

While everyone should be concerned about this disease, it is NOT as great a health risk in Mauritius as in many other countries. There is no cause for alarm. That said, everybody should do their part to help eliminated its spread regardless of the risk level. Brazil has stopped doing that and we can all see the tragic results. Mauritius certainly does not want to follow them down that road to disaster.

See the following webpage from the World Health Organization - WHO for more information:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/

Cheers,
James
Expat-blog Experts Team

I agree the rubbish you see on the beach at Flic en Flac on a Monday morning after the week-end 'campers' is often appalling as they come have a party , dump their rubbish on the ground and not in the bins provided and go home leaving the mess for others to look at and clean up.  Why don't the police make a patrol every few hours along the beach area and remind people to take good care of their rubbish and warn them if caught they could be made say to spend the morning cleaning the rubbish up etc.   I was recently in Rodrigues and there is little or no rubbish on the beaches or by the roadside there.  Maybe one reason is that plastic bags are not allowed and the other is that the Rodrigues people take more pride in protecting their environment than some Mauritian's do.