GREAT BAY(DCOMM):--- Collective Prevention Services (CPS), a department in the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour (Ministry VSA), is advising travellers from Sint Maarten to Haiti or the Dominican Republic, to take preventive measures while visiting friends or family in both countries during the summer holiday season.
Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease that affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if left untreated. The infection is ingested by food or water contaminated. It has a short incubation period of two hours to five days. Up to 80 per cent of cases can be successfully treated with oral rehydration salts.
While in the Dominican Republic or Haiti, ensure that you take precautions such as hygienic food preparation, boiling or purifying all water, and washing hands often with soap and clean water.
Symptoms can occur within 24 to 48 hours of being infected with the cholera causing bacteria.
Cholera symptoms are generally mild; they include diarrhoea, vomiting, and muscle cramps. About one infected person out of 20 has severe signs and symptoms, such as increased heart rate, dehydration, and shock.
Immediately consult your physician if you have travelled and have any of the symptoms, while maintaining proper hygiene.
To minimize the number of people infected, frequent hand washing, personal hygiene, safe water use and food preparation are a necessity. Maintain these basic hygienic habits as you travel.
By taking a few basic precautions, cholera as well as most other food and water-borne diseases can easily be prevented. The main rule is, always be aware of the quality of what you eat and drink.
Also be observant of sick persons in your close proximity and maintain strict hygiene practices.
Enjoy and keep safe as you travel for the summer holiday season and help us keep Sint Maarten Cholera Free!
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported in a recent epidemiological update on cholera that since the beginning of 2015 up to epidemiological week 22, a total of 16,961 cases have been reported in three countries in the Region of the Americas: Haiti (16,687 cases), the Dominican Republic (273 cases) and Cuba (1 case).
