Over the past few months the Environmental Health Unit has been conducting a Leptospirosis Risk Assessment study.
The project forms part of the work plan of the unit and is funded by the Pan American Health Organization.
In an exclusive interview with GIS news, Senior Environmental Health Officer, Sylvester St. Ville, stated that the purpose of the study is to assess the risk level of various communities.
“We have conducted risk assessments in Portsmouth and parts of Roseau. The whole objective of the Leptospirosis Risk Assessment is to assess communities to determine what level of risk these communities are in relation to the transmission of Leptospirosis. We are looking at household data and other environmental data including data on rodent risk factors and other domestic and wild animals which have been known to transmit leptospirosis.
As you know over the years we have had a number of cases of Leptospirosis which was extremely unfortunate. The purpose of this research is to reduce the potential for the transmission of Leptospirosis. If we have that data we can be aware of what is going on and we can put prevention and control measures for Leptospirosis in Dominica.” He said
He notes that the unit has been planning the implementation of the project for quite some time however; progress was thwarted due to Tropical Storm Ericka.
The study is in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the unit is hoping that the information collected upon completion will significantly help in reducing the spread of the harmful disease.
“We are collaborating with the Ministry of Agriculture Veterinary Unit. We will be trapping rodents to collect blood and urine samples. This will also be done on wild and domestic animals. We will be analyzing these samples for the Leptospirosis organism.
That would provide us with data as to if we find positive Leptospirosis cases among the animals then we can know the risk factors; if there is an increased risk factor for the transmission of Leptospirosis. Decisions are supposed to be evidence-based so we are hoping that the evidence that we collect from the research that we are conducting will go a long way in allowing us to make more evidence-based decisions.”
St. Ville revealed that the unit will be receiving assistance from the PAHO as well as the Ross School of Veterinary Medicine in St. Kitts, through the Ministry Of Health and the vet unit.
He noted that this collaboration is critical in serotyping the varieties of Leptospirosis.
“For example if we do some analysis of blood samples and we find positive cases of Leptospirosis we could work with them. We are hoping that we can work with them to identify the types of Leptospirosis because there are numerous types… In the future we in Dominica will be able to make the relationship between human leptospirosis and animal leptospirosis and be able to put measures in place for the discontinuation of that disease …,” he noted.
The unit is also creating a Geographic Information System or (GIS) mapping of high risk areas.
The study is expected to be completed by June 2017.