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Up to 60% of Jamaican population could eventually be affected by Chikungunya - health official

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Dr. Kevin Harvey, speaking on All Angles on September 24

It is being forecast that 30% to 60% of the Jamaican population could eventually be affected by the Chikungunya virus.
   
However Dr Kevin Harvey, acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of  Health, says the majority of  cases will be mild and the virus has a fatality rate of  less than one per cent.
    
Dr. Harvey, speaking on TVJ's All Angles on Wednesday night, said the Ministry does not know the actual number of  persons with Chick V, as it can only report numbers received by its representatives.

"Every body; every single individual, is susceptible to Chikungunya, and the mosquito that carries (it) is everywhere, so we are expecting that the parishes that are not yet impacted will be impacted," he said.

He said the only mitigating step that the health authorities can realistically take "is to try our best to make it as slow as possible, to make it incremental and not an explosive situation that is going to take out a significant number of the population at a particular time."



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