KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jun. 15, CMC – The Medical Officer of Health for the eastern parish of Portland, Dr. Sharon Lewis, has urged the public to refrain from harboring illegal immigrants.
Speaking during a recent meeting of the Portland Municipal Corporation, Lewis disclosed that one of the 42 Haitians who landed in Long Bay, in the parish on May 18 and were returned on May 20, tested positive for malaria.
According to Lewis, the Haitians were processed at Port Antonio Hospital where health checks were conducted and a positive result for malaria in an adult male was returned two days after he was repatriated.
The medical officer said the man displayed no symptoms of the virus.
“I wish to use this opportunity to remind the public that malaria in a person from a country where the disease is endemic often presents with mild symptoms and, as in the case of that man, it may present with no symptoms.”
“That is why we warn our citizens to alert the police and the health team when persons who are not Jamaicans arrive by boat on our shores without going through the official ports. These persons should be assessed immediately after their arrival so that they can take the necessary public health .”
Lewis said the vector control team promptly destroyed the boat in which the Haitians arrived and conducted fogging of the landing area to reduce the spread of any other viral diseases that members of the group may have had.
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