40 people with Zika In T&T

40 people with Zika In T&T
By SEAN DOUGLAS Friday, June 17 2016

THE number of people infected with the Zika virus now stands at 40, confirmed Ministry of Health officials replying to Opposition Senator Wade Mark’s query at a hearing of Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriation Committee on Wednesday at Tower D, International Waterfront Centre, Port-of-Spain.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Akenath Misir said the ministry’s Integrated Management of Aedes Programme focuses on proper disposal of waste so as to reduce mosquito breeding grounds, not on spraying people’s homes.

The committee also learnt that 985 patients had heart surgery at TT’s public hospitals in the past year.

Otherwise, Permanent Secretary Donna Ferraz revealed that in the past year some 810 patients had benefitted, to the tune of $37 million, from a fund itemised as “households” to access services that their local Regional Health Authority has problems supplying. The beneficiaries included 245 people receiving prosthetics, plus other patients receiving eye surgeries.

Ferraz said this initiative is separate to the ministry’s External Patient Programme. The ministry’s programme administrator, Beesham Seetaram, told Government Senator Allyson Baksh that patients applying for this provision are first assessed by a medical social worker.

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