BVI now seeing a decline in Hand-Foot-and-Mouth disease cases

Following a reported outbreak in recent weeks, the Hand-Foot-and-Mouth disease is now said to be on a decline in the British Virgin Islands.

National Epidemiologist Harmony Brewley gave that indication while speaking on the Umoja radio programme with Cromwell ‘Edju En Ka’ Smith recently.

“We are still having active transmission of the disease, but thank God, through to the collaborative efforts of the Ministry of Health, Environmental Health, the Health Services Authority and the daycares, and the Ministry of Education, we started to see a decline in the number of cases,” Brewley stated.

She attributed the decline in reported cases to the community meetings held with various stakeholders which included parents, teachers and daycare owners.

“We’ve conducted community sensitisation sessions, we invited the community nurse, they came out, they also informed the public about the clinical presentations. We also educated them on certain things that they may not know about Hand-foot-and-mouth disease. For example, the virus can remain in the faeces of the infected person for up to eight weeks,” Brewley added.

During a community meeting at the Ebenezer Thomas Primary School back in October, the National Epidemiologist reported that cases in the territory had drastically increased from three reported cases in the final week of September to almost 60 cases by the end of October.