The Ministry of Health is warning all householders to remove garbage from their properties and to destroy all potential breeding sites for mosquitoes in and around the home, following the detection of an increase in cases of dengue fever in several communities of St. Catherine over the past few weeks.

While the ministry did not specify the number of cases, it is advising persons suspected of having dengue fever to visit a doctor or health centre.

Heightened risk

Dengue fever cases occur in Jamaica every year; however, the risk of an outbreak may have bee since Hurricane Dean affected the island on August 19. This may have led to the settling of water, which provides more breeding sites for the aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits the disease.

The symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, skin rash, muscle and eye pain. Severe cases may cause bleeding from different parts of the body.