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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Barbados : Health warning

Via The Barbados Advocate :

" Significant increase in number of leptospirosis cases
THERE have been three reported deaths from leptospirosis so far this year.

Senior Medical Officer of Health for the North, Dr. Karen Springer, revealed that in total there have been 41 cases of the disease – the highest number since 1999. This figure is up from 12 cases recorded last year, with no resulting deaths.

Dr. Springer’s comments came during a press briefing on the status of leptospirosis in this country at the Ministry of Health’s Culloden Road headquarters yesterday morning.

“The number of deaths is in keeping with what we would expect, but the number of cases is certainly [not] what we would normally expect. The majority of our cases are in the 20 to 60 age group, and the majority of our cases are male – 84 per cent of our cases are male,” she told the media.

Springer also noted that in terms of geographical distribution, the majority of cases that have been recorded are in the St. Michael, Christ Church, St. James and St. Thomas areas. In terms of occupation, she said data has only been provided on 24 of the 41 confirmed cases, and it suggests that half of those persons are engaged in outdoor occupations such as farming, gardening or landscaping."

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