DoT braces for impact of CDC warning
Aedes aegypti mosquito
(CNS): Following a travel alert issued for the Cayman Islands by the Centre of Disease Control in Atlanta, after the jurisdiction confirmed two cases of local Zika transmission, the Department of Tourism (DoT) is braced for the potential impact on the local tourism industry. In a short statement released Friday, the department said its global team remained “proactive” in promoting the destination. “The DoT will adjust our already robust marketing plans as needed to ensure the destination is top of mind and converts travel bookings from our target audience,” officials said.
Even before Cayman recorded the two cases of local transmission of the Zika virus, the destination was already being impacted by the regional outbreak and decline in tourism to the Caribbean and Latin American destinations as a result of general fears about the mosquito-transmitted virus and its possible impact on unborn babies.
Tourism figures have been on the decline, but with an official travel warning visitor numbers could fall dramatically over the coming months.
“Now more than ever it is important for residents and businesses to adhere to the prevention practices outlined by the Public Health Department and the Mosquito Research Control Unit (MRCU),” tourism officials stated Friday. “The current situation and our success in mitigating the impact of the Zika virus are being managed through the proactive methodology employed by MRCU to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Everyone in the Cayman Islands has to do their part in helping to reduce the population of this mosquito and thus the spread of the Zika virus.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) added the Cayman Islands to its list of locations with a travel notice due to Zika this week after the Cayman Islands Public Health Department confirmed its second case of transmission in George Town in patients with no travel history to areas where there has already been an outbreak of the virus.
The MRCU is continuing with the controversial release of genetically modified Aedes aegypti and has now released more than 300,000 bio-engineered bugs. At present however, the pilot project is confined to the North West Point area of West Bay and none of the GM mosquitoes have been released in or around the capital.
Category: Health, Medical Health
I went onto the CDC website, and pretty much all of the Caribbean is highlighted for Zika. As is much of southern US, although only Florida shows non imported cases.
So, we are no worse off than any other country with a simular climate in our hemisphere. At least we, finally, released the genetically modified mosquitos. Cannot believe the boobs that tried to hinder this. We are small, we are relatively isolated, we can contain or eradicate this. If the GMO mosquitos work we could be Zika free and golden. Spray, spray spray.
This I just learned. I am a boob.
Right, Annie. That is what I can’t for the life of me understand why the Tourism Department keeps setting up a self-fulfilling prophecy. “Cayman bracing” for impacts on tourism became another headline locally and regionally — because of two cases, while other regionally territories have hundreds!
PS Rosa, many of these territories are reporting an increase! What gives, Rosa? Chill! Or are you grasping at an excuse?
Any truth to the story that Trump is going to solve Zika by building a huge net? Heard he’s going to get the mosquitos to pay for it
Pathetic. The mosquitoes don’t do your shitty politics.
More concerned about crime in GC than the mosquitos or Zika.
Well MRCU has stated that the AE mosquito species is not on Cayman Brac, I may start packing, and I would suggest that any pregnant woman who can, should move over for the duration of her pregnancy.
One thing to note is that the Brac has a much higher number of bats looming around (beyond the fact the Brac has less international air traffic); and obviously due to the hundreds of caves. But bats prove to be quite an effective way to control mosquitos.
Think I’d rather have Zika then move to the Brac. I like my food only a few weeks past the expiration date when I buy it.
History has shown that nocturnal bats cannot alone control the endemic mosquito populations on any of our islands, let alone invasive newcomers that fly during the day around human habitat.
Conscious Healing with Natural plants is the only way to boost immune system from
mother nature. Mosquitoes are simply here to clean up the waste from toxic humans.
Gmo Splicing STD’s Viruses into Mosquitoes, you have fully lost it humans..
We have immune systems we can deal with viruses, but not the toxins that the airplanes spray.
This topic is absolutely insane and the sure stupidity of the Government in Cayman baffles me.
No one here has bothered to read the Book of Enoch. Splicing was a well known craft, as was the advent of the Chimera.
How ridiculous. There is nothing new under the sun. Does anyone read anymore?
The Daily Mail does not count.
http://www.naturalnews.com/052943_Zika_virus_hoax_larvacide_chemical_GM_mosquitoes.html
Interesting article that links birth defects to a larvacide used and not Zica. Fear mongering!
Robert — 11:06 am. Rubbish!
Hope CIG is doing some serious spraying at Mount Trashmore, because one of the classic breeding grounds for the Zika mozzies is water collected in old car tyres – and their are just a few of those near to Camana Bay……and the the Seven Mile Beach area…..
Yes, for all those people that live in the trash heap. Good use of resources.
Hey! That’s where Dart’s Olympic ski team is training. Cool it man.
There is always a positive side- less crowded beaches, less traffic.
Always have plan B. Hurricanes, terrorism, epidemics of all sorts could put a serious dent on tourism-dependent economies.
People can’t control nature, no matter how much they might try. Mosquitoes will never be eliminated. Get used to it.
So when is the PPM Government going to issue a warning about travelling to the USA particularly Miami where everyone frequents..Almost 30 cases in just one neighborhood there…
Sorry for being so blunt, but may be you should contact the Government with a request to teach you how to wipe your behind.
The Miami Herald stated today that there are actually 529 cases in Florida, 59 of which are pregnant women.
Well I was in east end today and some strange mosquitos swarmed me and was biting me like bees out of hell. Are these the new bionic mozzies? 2 hours later and I’m swollen all over and nauseated.
5:42 pm — did you hear the news? Stay in doors during peak mosquito hours and if you must be out use bug spray. You are not without options.
Similar weekend here – went to check our land plot in EE and we were swarmed. However, there was also a weird looking VERY LARGE one who’s sucker resembled a saw (and I am not joking). Took a pic of it (wish we had caught it!) and did some googling and the closet thing that came up was the “gallnipper” – but we still could not find any pics that truly resembled what we saw.
So you never told us…. how is your plot of land?
The mosquitoes had a meeting and quite frankly, they are incredibly pissed off with all this discrimination. After all, they were here first.
Now that they have been endued with super powers by our friends at Oxitec, their leader, chief Mozzy Bychaboody has promised us An onslaught of onslaughts and they will be targeting those nuisance bats first.
Mosquitoes, as roaches and rats will survive a nuclear explosion. They are and always will be the part of the life on this planet. So plan accordingly.
Well, not technically. A direct blast with the shockwave and heat, no living organism can. It’s absolute, hence why nuclear as a weapon against humans/earth should never be a war solution.
Now here’s where your comment has some plausibility:
“Cockroaches’ ability to withstand extreme radiation exposure may come down to their simple bodies and slower cell cycles. Cells are said to be most sensitive to radiation when they’re dividing. That’s why humans are more vulnerable — they have some cells that are constantly splitting up.
Roaches, on the other hand, only molt about once a week at most, which makes radiation’s window of opportunity to attack cells much narrower. But if the nuclear explosion was powerful enough, even these ancient critters couldn’t continue on.” – sourced from Mythbusters testing.
Interesting reading here:
6 Organisms That Can Survive the Fallout From A Nuclear Explosion:
http://morgana249.blogspot.com/2014/08/6-organisms-that-can-survive-fallout.html?m=1
Scientist also agree that Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones would also very likely survive the fallout from a nuclear explosion, and then he would probably smoke all of the roaches that survived.
I wonder why the Department of Health didn’t have these 2 ZIKA case’s tested properly to know how these cases came about in Cayman Islands. I think that the Department of Health and the DoT needs to address these issues together to make sure that issues like ZIKA don’t damage the Tourism of the Islands .
When this could have been avoided by knowing how the cases came about . Damage is hard to control after it gets out of control.
9:42 am — there is no test to determine whether the individuals were infected sexually or by mosquitoes. I am sure, however, that this has been part of the discussion. Likely they ruled put sexual transmission which led to the report that our mosquitoes are infected.
We should know that they have ruled out sexual transmission.
Isn’t it about time the government gave powers to the Dept of Health to visit yards where rampant breeding of these mosquitoes takes place, and gives them a letter to clean up within 7 days or face a fine? One of my neighbors has a yard that looks like Mount Trashmore. Anything they don’t want any more just gets thrown outside and left to rot, accumulate pools of stagnant water and create a breeding ground for these mosquitoes. Old toys, old appliances, clothes, old buckets, tires etc Their yard is a public health hazard in more ways than one, as well as an eyesore.
Come on everyone – mosquitoes live in a small area around where they breed. Clean up your yard, encourage your neighbors to do the same, cut out the local places where they breed and you’ll reduce the risk to yourself and others. This laziness of just throwing all your old crap out the back door and into the yard has got to stop.
Hell yeah! What is it with the yards and all the old junk people just drop outside their door. Does it somehow become invisible for them, because it’s certainly not for the rest of us or our tourists.
From the World Heath Organisation website:
“Flight range studies suggest that most female Ae. aegypti may spend their lifetime in or around the houses where they emerge as adults and they usually fly an average of 400 metres.”
http://www.who.int/denguecontrol/mosquito/en/
Time for the government to tackle these in-yard health hazards with legislation, for the benefit of health and tourism. Parents should be creating a clean, safe environment for their kids to play, not showing them how sitting around, doing nothing, and living in squalor is the way forward.
9:30 am — you can report unsanitary conditions and Environmental Health will respond. If you see something, say something. We have a responsibility as citizens to be the eyes of health agencies. If you don’t report, they may not know.
hahah! That’s funny… Environmental Health Dept will respond? Really?? I sent them details and about 10 pictures of my neighbors Mt. Trashmore in their backyard and have NEVER even received a response via email or phone! I spent weeks following up and never heard back, and to this day, years later, the yard still looks the same! I think I need to go down there and drag an employee by the ear to get them to deal w/ our neighbor’s mess! Any suggestions?
There are no employees. There is just a highly trained dog that eats any mail that’s delivered there.
The MRCU already has that power and has been doing it.
Then why is all the trash providing ideal breeding sites so prevalent all over the Island?
@ 9:30 am — I think they already have powers to enter premises that pose health risks.
Two weeks ago The Compass Editor chided the Tourism Director for stating concerns that Zika could impact tourism numbers. See https://www.caymancompass.com/2016/07/24/editorial-tourism-stats-rosier-than-rosas-report/
Today we have two local cases of zika and the USA has issued a travel advisory against Cayman.
Hopefully the Compass Editor now realises that the Tourism Director and Government were correct to be concerned. The Compass is quick to call people out because they seem to believe they are the smartest guys in the room. Not!
They are often wrong and take every occasion they can to attack Cayman. But I do not suspect the Compass editor will be saying sorry anytime soon and apologizing to Ms Harris and the Cayman public. This is not his/their style.
8:27 am: I had noted carefully at the time the wording of both that editorial and the comments of the Director of Tourism.
I do not think any apology is due. The director should have taken the opportunity at the time she made the comments to plug the fact that we were Zika free. What she did was to associate Cayman with Zika countries.
True, the virus is now here — but I am firmly convinced that we will not have the deluge of cases as elsewhere.
Remember, as a country, we have the best mosquito control strategies in the world. (That was sort of the message the director should have been sending and can still send).
Now, if ya all see environmental conditions that need attention, pick up da cell phone and call Environmental Health. And clean up around unna yard.
released those GM mosquitos too late, if only those “we believe anything on the internet” people didnt delay the release, our tourism could have been saved this problem.
maybe the hotels could get together and sue the idiots
Sir, please hand your computer in to the nearest police station.
did you read that on the internet too?
it wouldn’t have mattered anyway– West Bay is a little too far away to tackle the mozzies in George Town! (which is where they should’ve started the project in the first place)!! Has anyone not been attached in the residential area across from Queens Court? It’s crazy there, much worse than anything in WB!
I hope that Dwene and his financial backers are now happy for I am certainly not.
@9:40 pm
If you are not pregnant what do you fear? Mosquitoes? Bites? Flu? Cold?
Life itself?
Well there goes the port project
They should be more worried about that dutty sign.
Do the health authorities here know that the two local cases were transmitted by mosquito, rather than sexually?
They really should say one way or the other. If it were to turn out that the cases were in fact sexually transmitted, there will have been a needless negative impact on our tourism product with potential very significant adverse social and economic consequences. I wonder if they have any concern for the distinction?
And why the hell is it taking so long to get test results? The U.S. Seems able to confirm the position within a few hours as they are now using the testing to clear donors blood in affected areas. What is being done to check our blood supply?
The asuumption is the term local transmission is used when it comes from the mosquitos. If it were sexually transmitted they would have said that as they did in previous cases.
Exactly! But one will never know.
So our tourism industry is jeopardized because someone would not ask embarrassing questions? Please tell me that is not the case.
look, the conversation with infected persons include:
1. Travel history — no travel? then you got it here
2. Sexual partner? Has he travelled recently? No partner or he did not travel and you did not travel? you definitely got it from the mossies.
3. However, in the case of a situation of acquiring the virus and having a partner who has travelled, there is no definite way of knowing whether you got it from the mossies or from the partner. You can suspect but can you really be certain?
So then you say it MAY have been sexually transmitted!
Never mind. Dwene will find a way to bring the tourists here. He’s very smart I hear.
So true 12:52. We need to find a place for him in the Legislative Assembly along with the other smart ones.
BRING BACK ELIO! Sorry, that just blurted out.
West Bayers get to vote, not sure why, but it happens.
won’t effect the kimpton and its clientele!
Free can of OFF and some citronella patio candles on arrival . Zika gone clear ,Bobo
We will get gay, radioactive mosquitoes. No need for fireworks this year then?
12:51 I suspect that comment went right over the heads of most CNS readers. You might need to explain it to them.