All four strains of the dengue virus have been found to be in circulation in Barbados and an emergency plan is about to be put in place.
Senior Medical Officer Dr. Ronald Knight said with the presence of all four strains at one time, Barbados had now entered the "big time" and was now in the "dengue haemorrhagic fever domain" (DHF).
The risk of DHF increases with multiple infections and strikes at a time when the patient's fever has lowered and he seems on the way to recovery.
The doctor told a meeting of his colleagues last week that dengue fever was once a sporadic disease occurring every two to three years in Barbados. However, since 1995 when dengue (Serotype 2) struck, taking down 40 per cent of the population, it had not abated.
"After 1995, things really lit up. We have not had a month since 1997 when dengue was not reported. So far for 2000, we had over 80 cases which is highly unusual," said Knight. Previously there were no deaths, now, between four to six people die of dengue each year.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue, breeds in and around the home, especially in an environment which is filled with litter and illegal dumping, where there are containers that can hold rain water. Things as small as a PET bottle cover has been found to contain mosquito larvae. The plan seeks to put in place a number of measures to enable authorities to forecast an epidemic, notify the public expeditiously, and implement an emergency hospitalisation plan quickly. It is being devised at a two-day meeting under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and the Pan American Health Organisation.