A team of Cuban nurses arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday to assist this country with its COVID-19 efforts.
Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh made the announcement while speaking at the daily virtual media briefing on Saturday.
He said the nurses will be quarantined for a 14-day period before they are deployed.
"The Cuban team of nurses of 11 or 12 did in fact arrive yesterday (Friday). We are happy to welcome them to Trinidad and Tobago. As per protocol, they are going to be quarantined for a period of two weeks just to make sure, just like we did with the contingent from Barbados and Suriname," Deyalsingh said.
The Health Minister added that they are Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses.
He noted that there is a shortage of that skill in T&T and local nurses are being trained.
"Once they get the all clear, then we will have them deployed where we need them. These nurses are specialist ICU nurses. In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a shortage of that skill. They are not taking the job of Trinidad nurses. What we are doing in the interim is also training our local nurses in ICU management."
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health said in its 4 pm clinical update on May 2, 2020, confirmed that the number of positive cases remains at 116, with eight deaths.
To date, 1,838 samples have been submitted for testing, with 1,517 unique patient tests completed and 312 repeated tests. 
The Ministry said 88 people have been discharged to date, with one additional person discharged from the Home of Football in Couva.
Currently, six patients are still at the Couva Hospital and there are no patients at Caura Hospital.
The Ministry said there are no patients in ICU or HDU. 
Source:  The Loop, May 3, 2020

Trinidad and Tobago is now listed at number one in an updated covid19 lockdown rollback checklist compiled by Oxford University researchers.
The report, the Oxford Covid19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), was created by the University of Oxford's Blavatnik School of Goverment (BSG).
The data is analysed by a team of researchers led by Dr Thomas Hale, associate professor of global public policy at BSG.
It is a working paper, which means it is a non-peer-reviewed article. These are used for early drafts to gather feedback before they are submitted to academic journals.
This country shares the lead with Croatia, Hong Kong and Iceland.
The list which ranks countries that meet World Health Organization's recommendations for relaxing physical distancing measures.
In a previous list issued on April 23, TT was ranked second to Vietnam.
TT and nearly 160 other countries were graded in four areas: cases controlled; test, trace and isolate; manage import cases; and community understanding.
This country has a score of one, the highest achievable, for control of cases, as well as community understanding, along with other high scores of 0.8 for testing and isolation, and 0.9 for community understanding. It gives the country a total score of 0.9.
Croatia, Hong Kong and Iceland were ranked joint first with the same score.
By comparison, the UK is languishing near to the bottom, only four places above Iran, which sits last. The UK's total score is 0.3, with the only respectable score being 0.9 in community understanding.
The first published list not did not identify the countries' individual scores.
Before ranking each country by scores, the document notes that while the publisher, Oxford Covid19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), and its data cannot fully say how ready countries are to leave lockdown, it provides for a rough comparison across nations.
"Even this 'high level' view reveals that few countries are close to meeting the WHO criteria for rolling back lock-down measures. At the time of writing, only a handful of countries are doing well at the four 'checklist' criteria OxCGRT is able to track," the report says.
Hale's report used WHO guidelines as its basis.
Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, asked for his thoughts on TT's number-two position on Wednesday, said the population should not react with a false sense of security.
He added, however, that the Oxford report is "a very good report" and "paints us in an excellent light."
"This is testimony to what we have been saying all along," Deyalsingh said, "that our response to covid, led by the prime minister, was a robust one...What this speaks to is that the world is recognising that the decision not to flip a switch and open back the economy is the right way." Source: Newsday, May 1, 2020

The Health Minister and National Security Minister have been working together to get Cuban nurses into Trinidad and Tobago, to assist in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Minister of National Security, Stuart Young highlighted that it is anticipated that a plane will be coming from Cuba, in the very near future, to bring these nurses to our shores.
The Minister made it clear that these nurses would be quarantined for 14 days upon their arrival. Source: Power 102FM, April 2020

Port of Spain, Trinidad. April 3rd, 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global economies to its knees, with many grinding to a halt. It has crippled so many industries worldwide, particularly the food and beverage industry such as bars and restaurants, where millions of people around the world are now without a job, since bars have been forced to close their doors and restaurants have limited their businesses to pick-up services only. Most of the employees in these establishments have relied heavily on tips from customers to pay their bills to take care of their families. Their livelihood has now been uprooted by the outbreak of the coronavirus and it is anyone’s guess when normalcy will return. The food and beverage industry is an area that Angostura Holdings cares deeply about as it’s a sector that has continuously supported our business.
To the healthcare workers and all other first responders around the world, thank you for taking care of everyone in your respective countries, and risking your lives daily to ensure that the coronavirus does not spread. Our employees, customers, suppliers, partners and communities are suffering due to this pandemic. As a corporate citizen of Trinidad & Tobago we cannot sit by and watch those who have supported us suffer at the hands of this dreaded coronavirus. It is our responsibility to do what we can to fight this virus from taking over our country. One of the products desperately needed at this time is hand sanitizer and, we are able to produce pharmaceutical grade alcohol to make it.
Angostura has transformed its distilling capability to deliver all pharmaceutical demands while also producing 50,000 bottles of 375 ml and 20,000 bottles of 1.75 litres hand sanitizer to donate. As at April 1st, Angostura began distributing the hand sanitizer to public hospitals for healthcare workers, the Ministry of National Security for its first responders such as the Police Service, Defence Force, Prison Service in T&T, communities and other entities with direct public interaction. Our employees have been working tirelessly to ensure that we deliver the best quality of hand sanitizer. It comprises of 80% ethyl alcohol and small amounts of hydrogen peroxide and glycerin. It is made according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations and formula. This is not the first time the Company has stepped in to give assistance to the nation. In fact, Angostura has a long history of supporting its communities, employees and partners, and this time around is no different.
CEO Peter Sandstrom says, “We felt it was crucial to manufacture and donate hand sanitizer for frontline healthcare workers and other first responders. These are workers who are putting their lives on the line to combat the spread of COVID-19. It is important to us that they are protected from this virus. We, at Angostura, appreciate their sacrifices and we salute them for their contribution.”
Sandstrom adds, “Angostura is a business built for people and by people. In times like these, it is essential, we deliver what the country needs. As an executive team, we took the decision to begin producing high-grade alcohol for sanitizing liquids to ensure that we could support the nation’s fight against the coronavirus, by preventing the spread of the virus with the very effective and powerful hand sanitizer. At a time when our plant was down, we have made modifications to increase, as far as we can, our alcohol production capacity. The excess alcohol though limited, has been distributed for sale to those licensed to produce hand sanitizers. Angostura is here to support the nation and we are making every effort to do this.”
The company started a distillery upgrade back in December 2019, which is still underway and that has limited the amount of alcohol in our plant. Despite this, Mr. Sandstrom says, Angostura is committed to delivering what it takes to assist T&T.
To say these are uncertain times is an understatement. We don’t know what lies ahead, but what we do know is that Angostura Holdings. will continue to play a role in fighting the spread of COVID-19 in T&T. As a global bitters and rum producer that has been around for over 195 years, know we will ride through this storm.
COVID-19 is having a severe impact on all businesses. The coronavirus hit our country in mid-March when the first positive case was detected. Since then the number of positive cases has been climbing and this has led to a shutdown of many businesses, leaving thousands of people without jobs. We at Angostura have been able to sustain our operations so that we can maintain all our employees at this time, but this is being done through strict and stringent safety measures to protect everyone. While we have secured our personnel, we are constantly reviewing our supply chains to maintain business continuity.
The Gov’t of T&T has closed off all international borders, thereby restricting entry, social gatherings have been prohibited, and social distancing is being encouraged in a bid to safeguard citizens from the dreaded virus that has taken over many other countries. The Government also took a decision to allow only essential services to operate for a two-week period, to ensure the amount of people leaving their homes is limited so that the coronavirus does not continue to spread.
Together, we can all fight this and regain control of our lives and our beloved country.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has announced that the stay-at-home order has been extended to April 30.
And all food services have been closed, effective tomorrow, until April 30.
Schools will not reopen for the new term on April 20.
And the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA), planned for some time in May, will have to be rescheduled.
Government will begin distributing masks to citizens who have been told to wear the masks in public.
And there are changes in the times during which essential businesses are permitted to open.
The new order comes into effect on Tuesday.
The announcement was made this morning during a press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Anns.
Rowley told the nation that the health authorities tracking the spread of COVID-19 expects that by April 15, when the stay-at-home order was expected to end, “It is quite likely, certainly possible, we may be in a worse position that we were when we started”.
He said the stay-at-home order would be enforced with greater compliance, to deal with the problem.
He said he was not about people preserving their comfort zone or earning capacity.
As a result, he said that effective immediately, the recommendation was that members of the public wears masks, and that the State would begin a mask-distribution programme.
He said hardware stores, and electrical and plumbing businesses will be allowed to open from 8a.m. to noon, Monday to Saturday.
The businesses that have been allowed to open, including some retails stores, discount stores, markets, fruit stalls, bakeries and parlours which provide food, have to close by 6pm.
Wholesales businesses providing food will have to close by 4p.m.
Pharmacies will close by 8p.m. Source:  Daily Express, April 8, 2020

In a sobering appeal to the nation tonight, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley prepared the country for possibly more deaths and infections from the COVID-19 coronavirus, and beseeched citizens to “take cover” over the next two weeks to give us a fighting chance to save ourselves.
In an address to the nation, Rowley said the request of the Government, on the advice of the medical experts, was simple – stay indoors, stay away from as many people as possible, isolate and do not congregate.
He said the country was at war, and every person in Trinidad and Tobago was now a soldier fighting an invisible enemy that passed from person to person silently.
As of Sunday afternoon, the virus had killed three, and infected 78 in Trinidad and Tobago.
Globally, the pandemic, as of tonight, had killed more than 700,000, and killed more than 33,000, crippling heath care systems and collapsing economies.
Rowley said that while the elderly were particularly vulnerable to the pathogen (two of the locals victims were 77 and 80 years), he was troubled that in “we have seen in recent hours that children are also vulnerable”.
He said that good hygiene was the only antidote and until a vaccine became available it was the best and only weapon available.
“So please, let common sense prevail and let personal responsibility be your contribution”, said the prime minister, who likened the fight to the ones fought by Trinidadians in World War I and World War II and who are honoured at Memorial Park, Port of Spain.
Of the stay-at-home order he said “we have identified that it’s not an absolute instruction to every single person. If we are to continue with some semblance of life and engagement, many of us have to go out to ensure that there is water, there is electricity, there is health care”.
He said that in the war now being fought by Trinidad and Tobago, there were heroes.
“Our heroes are not the ones who today expect to have their names on memorials, but they are there. We as a people are grateful and must acknowledge the heroes who are in our health care system, the front line people, the first responders in every area who are there to protect us and they are doing a marvellous job”.
“Don’t make their effort be in vain” to told citizens.
He said: “You…simply have to take cover. If you want to exercise, I’m sure there is enough space in your home to exercise and to do things that will keep you exercised.”
He a crisis, some things have to be given up, he said.
“So from midnight tonight, essential personnel in essential areas will come out to do their duty. Non-essential persons, it does not mean that you are not important, or you less important, it is simple the mechanism for the response. The best response is for us to batten down, stay inside, don’t congregate, and stay away from as many people as you possibly can”.
He said “In this emergency, I know it is not easy to not be able to hug your grandparents or your grandchild, but that is what we give up to be safe and to be successful. If we are to succeed, we take the advice of out health care professionals who tell us how this microbe will respond to our behaviour. From tonight at midnight we expect to ramp up our response to deny the microbe easy movement from one person to another.
He said “Our ultimate goal is to ensure that at all times out health care preparations are such that we can deal with any situation that exists in Trinidad and Tobago at this time. We expect that in the coming weeks, that the situation will change, not for the better because the model shows that we expect more infection and possible more loss of life. What we are trying to do is to minimize those numbers by our response…(so) withdrawn and isolate. That is how we defeat this invisible enemy.”
He said “I know we are a discipline people. We have shown it time and time again. That discipline is now required to save our lives. As today has been designated and is being practiced as a day prayer, let us continue to ask God for his blessings, with the full knowledge that he has promised us that if we ask, he will hear and if we do what we are required to do, he will be pleased and he will do his part because we would have done our part.” Source:  Daily Express, March 29, 2020

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith an­nounced on Car­ni­val Tues­day that about 100 boys had been de­tained by po­lice over the Car­ni­val pe­ri­od.
He said the boys, who were be­tween the ages of 13 and 16, had been de­tained af­ter po­lice re­ceived in­tel­li­gence that they were plan­ning to dis­rupt the fes­tiv­i­ties with acts that in­clud­ed as­sault and theft. The me­dia has been dom­i­nat­ed by news of chil­dren be­ing in­volved in school vi­o­lence, at­tacks on teach­ers, van­dal­is­ing school prop­er­ty and teach­ers' cars and en­gag­ing in dare games such as the dan­ger­ous Jump/Trip Chal­lenge.
This has prompt­ed re­tired vice-prin­ci­pal and school teacher Drau­patie Ma­haraj to re­lease a CD and song book called "Grow­ing Up With Val­ues" specif­i­cal­ly for at-risk chil­dren to teach them about love, right ac­tion, truth, non-vi­o­lence, and peace.
Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia at its St Vin­cent Street of­fices, Ma­haraj said "The coun­try is in such a bad state where crime is af­fect­ing every­one's life and we thought we will start with the chil­dren.
"It is a book and a CD pre­pared for pri­ma­ry school chil­dren and even younger than that. With chil­dren, what their ears hear, their minds ab­sorb.
"I strong­ly be­lieve that they need to start with chil­dren. When they grow up with these val­ues they will think twice be­fore em­bark­ing on a life of crime. 
"To­geth­er with my grand­chil­dren, Vaish­navi, Saak­shi, Nishesh and Sharvi, we've done this book and CD. You can fol­low in the books, but very soon chil­dren will be­come ac­cus­tomed to hear­ing it."
She said once they go for a dri­ve with their par­ents in the fam­i­ly car, they will play the CD with ten songs (some ti­tles are Don't Give Up, The Time To Be Hap­py is Now and Stand To­geth­er).
She said par­ents can en­cour­age them to sing and sing to­geth­er, it be­comes fun.
Ma­haraj said singing al­ways does some­thing pos­i­tive to the mind and psy­che; when you have a hap­py child his fo­cus will not be on crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties.
She said she had been a teacher for over 40 years at Tran­quil­i­ty Gov­ern­ment Sec­ondary School, Ch­agua­nas Se­nior Com­pre­hen­sive School and Ch­agua­nas Ju­nior Sec­ondary School, vice-prin­ci­pal for over five years, and a se­nior teacher at the last school.
Ma­haraj said she was very pas­sion­ate about chang­ing the val­ue sys­tem in the coun­try.
Ma­haraj, who holds a BA and Diplo­ma of Ed­u­ca­tion, said even af­ter re­tire­ment, she has been work­ing with a group of teach­ers do­ing re­me­di­al work with chil­dren in the low­er-in­come brack­et ar­eas and un­der­priv­i­leged chil­dren.
She said they have class­es every two weeks, con­duct re­li­gious in­struc­tion class­es at the Ch­agua­nas Gov­ern­ment Pri­ma­ry School and em­pathised with the chil­dren. She said these ar­eas were where they were start­ing with them.
Ma­haraj said teach­ing was her pas­sion and chang­ing the lives of those chil­dren who may be crim­i­nal­ly in­clined was a chal­lenge, but they must do it.
She said when they speak to chil­dren on a one-on-one ba­sis, they see that they can change, while there was life, there was hope. Ma­haraj said she strong­ly be­lieved that was the way to keep them away from a life of crime, the words and tunes in the songs were very catchy, chil­dren will ben­e­fit from them and she hoped that the pos­i­tive mes­sage spreads.
The CD and song book are avail­able at Char­ran's Book­stores in Tu­na­puna, San Juan, and Trinci­ty, Jadoo's Book­store in Ari­ma, Sookhai's Diesel in Ch­agua­nas, tele­phone and Ma­haraj is al­so on Face­book.
She said the in­tro­duc­to­ry price was just $20; it was an in­vest­ment in chil­dren's fu­ture and was well be­low cost which was done to reach a wide mar­ket as pos­si­ble.
Source: Trinidad Guardian, March 8, 2020

FOR the first time in TT's history, Tuesday saw the first all-woman panel of judges convened at the Court of Appeal. President of the panel Justice Alice Yorke-Soo Hon said she felt heartened to be a part of it.
Also on the panel were recently elevated judges Justices Gillian Lucky and Maria Wilson.
Wilson, who received her instrument of appointment last week, was welcomed to the court by Senior Counsel Ian Benjamin, Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard, SC, and attorney Wayne Sturge.Lucky received her instrument in January.
Yorke-Soo Hon welcomed Wilson and spoke of the wisdom she brings to the court.
Benjamin spoke of her international experience as a former prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a prosecutor at the International Criminal Court.
"Justice Wilson brings an international perspective," he said.
Gaspard reminisced about her time at the DPP's Office. He said he has never forgotten her contribution to the office and praised her mental acumen and legal knowledge.
He said there was no doubt she would make a stellar contribution to the appeal court.
Sturge, who was signed out by the judge since he last appeared before her at her last trial as a High Court judge, said it was a momentous occasion for women.
In her response, Wilson said she felt humbled by the welcome she received.

For just about 30 min­utes yes­ter­day, Trinidad born rap­per Nic­ki Mi­naj spent time bond­ing with stu­dents of the St Jude’s Home for Girls in Bel­mont.
Mi­naj, seat­ed next to Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith, spent the time dis­cussing sev­er­al top­ics as the stu­dents asked her nu­mer­ous ques­tions about her ini­tial mo­ti­va­tion to be­come a record­ing artiste to the re­la­tion­ship that be­came her even­tu­al mar­riage to Ken­neth Pet­ty last year.
“I met Mr Pet­ty when I was 17 years old, first of all,” said Mi­naj in a full Tri­ni ac­cent.
“When I met him as a teenag­er, I was like oh God, typ­i­cal bad boy, I’m not gonna be able to lock him down, get out of here. And then he turned out to be... all of that (good)stuff. He’s just that on the out­side,” she said.
She added, “And he be­came ex­act­ly what I need­ed for the bal­ance in my life.”
Mi­naj al­so spoke on the ef­fect of drugs, ro­man­tic re­la­tion­ships as a teenage and even her teenage preg­nan­cy and sub­se­quent abor­tion as she tried to use her life as a les­son for the girls at the home.
“Even in my teenage years, I didn’t know which way I was gonna turn. I had a lot of things go­ing on, I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced be­ing in a home with do­mes­tic vi­o­lence. I’ve ex­pe­ri­enced you know, be­ing at a very dif­fi­cult cross­road in my life as a teenag­er and some­times as a teenag­er when things hap­pen you feel like there’s no up from there some­times,”
said Mi­naj.
“I don’t know what is go­ing on in your life but it feels so dif­fi­cult when you’re go­ing through it, but you will get through it. You will get out of it. I was one of those girls who ex­pe­ri­enced be­ing preg­nant as a teenag­er and you know I was so ashamed to tell my moth­er that. Till this day I nev­er told my moth­er. I felt like I let my­self down, and I felt like if any­one were to find out my whole fam­i­ly would be ashamed of me,” she said.
She added, “I want you guys to use, if you want to use my life as a les­son in the fact that there are al­ways bet­ter days ahead. I want you guys to be en­cour­aged.”
“There has to be some­thing in­side of you, even right now to­day that de­cides, you’re gonna win no mat­ter what. No mat­ter what comes at you,” Mi­naj told the girls.
Mi­naj al­so host­ed an im­promp­tu tal­ent show in which some girls sang Be­y­once’s Ha­lo as well as Mi­naj’s 2014 hit Pills and Po­tions.
She was how­ev­er im­pressed with a spo­ken word piece by one of the girls and ex­pressed some re­gret that she had not record­ed the per­for­mance to so­cial me­dia.
They then con­vinced Mi­naj, with the aid of a smart­phone do a verse from her hit song Mega­tron and a cou­ple lines from her verse on Mo­tor­sport.
Mi­naj al­so asked the stu­dents what they felt they need­ed in the com­mu­ni­ty, as she said she hoped to cre­ate a space for the youths in the area.
Be­fore leav­ing, Mi­naj do­nat­ed $US25,000 to home. Source: Trinidad Guardian, Feb 2020

TORONTO -- Jeanine Monteiro was back home from her vacation to Cuba for a week when she began to get intense headaches behind her eyes, followed shortly thereafter by strange hallucinations.
The unusual symptoms were the first signs of dengue fever, a potentially deadly disease that has exploded in prevalence in South America and the Caribbean with several tropical countries reporting outbreaks and national health emergencies.
But at the time, Monteiro, 42, thought she might just have the flu. 
Within weeks, her symptoms spiralled out of control. She suffered joint pain and stiffness, and slowly lost her grip on reality. At one point, while in the car with her father after a doctor’s appointment, she struggled to read the pain medication she’d just been prescribed.
“My dad kept saying things to me and I remember saying, ‘Are you speaking English?’ And then I said, ‘What is this in my hand?’ And he said, ‘It’s your medication Jeanine. Don’t you remember?’” Monteiro told CTV News from her home in Cambridge, Ont.
“That’s the last memory I have.”
In the car, Monteiro suffered a seizure and was rushed to the emergency department. Doctors made a shocking discovery: she had suffered multiple organ failures and only had a quarter of her heart function left. She spent 11 days on life support as the medical team tried to figure out the source of her life-threatening condition.
“There was a couple days they weren’t sure I was going to make it,” Monteiro said.
The answer, it turned out, was a dengue-infected mosquito bite during her recent trip to Cuba. Montero was one of more than 560,000 people in North and South America to contract dengue fever in 2018. Those numbers skyrocketed in 2019 to 3.1 million cases – more than five times the previous year’s caseload. The problem is widespread. Argentina is currently reporting a dengue fever outbreak, and emergencies have been declared in Honduras, Brazil, Jamaica and Paraguay. Recently, Paraguay’s president, Mario Abdo Benitez, contracted the virus and was ordered to rest.
But travellers such as Monteiro said they had no idea just how prevalent – and how dangerous – dengue fever could be until they contracted the illness themselves.
“That was my 18th time to Cuba, and I felt very safe going there,” Monteiro said.
Even after she recovered, dengue fever has had a lasting effect on Monteiro’s health. The illness triggered an autoimmune disease, scleroderma, that was lying dormant in her system. She also lives with kidney disease and is unable to work.
“It’s devastated my life,” she said. “Besides losing my career that I worked very hard to have, I was pretty healthy before all of this.”
Last month, Jodie Dicks, a 26-year-old woman from Toronto, contracted dengue fever while attending her friend’s destination wedding in Jamaica. Less than a week later, she suffered multiple heart attacks and died in her mother’s arms in a Florida medical centre.
Dicks’ death has drawn new attention to the disease, for which there is no vaccine available in Canada. CTV News spoke to three survivors who all said that Canadian travellers are not being given enough information about the virus.
When Monteiro learned of the young woman’s death, she said she immediately wanted to reach out to Dicks’ parents and offer her condolences.
“I think they’re feeling the same as me. They’re angry that there was no information about this. There was no preparation or warning,” she said.
“People need to know that this is happening. You might not hear about it often, it might be rare, but it’s happening, and it’s happening in all the most popular vacation spots.”
WHAT IS DENGUE FEVER?
Dengue fever is primarily spread by mosquitos. Symptoms include a sudden high fever, rash, nausea, swollen glands and pain in the bones, joints and eyes.
The federal government says travellers are at risk when travelling to countries where dengue fever is present. According to the World Health Organization, more than 40 per cent of the world’s population lives in areas where dengue can be transmitted.
Travel agents in Canada are encouraged, though not required, to warn travellers of such risks, according to the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies.
But what many people may not know about dengue fever is that the illness is potentially much more dangerous if a person contracts the virus more than once. That means frequent fliers to dengue-affected countries could be at greater risk.
“If you are infected once, you're actually at a set-up for a really bad outcome the second time when you are hit with a different strain,” said infectious diseases specialist Dr. Neil Rau.
Monteiro said that, due to the severity of her illness, there is a “big possibility” that she contracted dengue fever before. On an earlier trip to Jamaica she contracted flu-like symptoms on the third day of the trip and suffered lasting symptoms for weeks. After being prescribed antibiotics, she got better.
“It never occurred to me until I started reading and researching this disease and found out that it’s very possible that I was bitten once before,” she said. “A lightbulb kind of went off.”
It’s a situation Arletta Doroszuk is familiar with. The 50-year-old from Courtice, Ont. travelled to the Bahamas in 2011 and, after a few days of arriving home, suffered from a high fever and severe pain in her hands.
Doroszuk visited her doctor several times and, after the condition worsened, she was eventually tested for dengue fever. The tests came back positive.
Nine years after that trip, she hasn’t travelled south again. She’s afraid of what might happen if she contracts dengue a second time.
“I’m just afraid I might get (the virus again) and I will not be so lucky,” she said.
Her advice for travellers: pack bug repellent and research your travel destination to see if dengue fever is present.
Another woman, Carla Radke from Winnipeg, travelled to the Mexican community of Guayabitos north of Puerto Vallarta for a three-month vacation with her husband. She said her hotel sprayed for mosquitoes, but she still ended up suffering from pain behind her eyes and aching muscles -- both symptoms of the illness.
She was sick for nine days and, over the coming months, lost nearly 100 lbs. She was shocked when she found out she had dengue fever.
“I never thought of dengue. I only thought of Zika. To me, dengue is like an old thing...Zika was newer, and that was on my mind,” she said.
UNDERSTANDING THE RISK
Jodie Dicks’ mother, Christine Boissoin, and stepfather, Randy Boissoin, said they want to make sure that their daughter did not die “in vain.” They are now speaking out in hopes of educating other Canadians about the risks of dengue fever.
They say the government’s warnings are not easy to find, and that not enough travellers are aware of the problem.
“Jodie is not here with us now -- this isn’t a one-off. My Lord, people need the information,” Ryan Boissoin said.
“I would say just look at our story. We have a daughter who didn’t come home, and if you don’t think it isn’t a potential reality, you are sadly mistaken.”