Liburd on Chikungunya Media Reports

ZIZ News — Minister of Health, the Honourable Marcella Liburd has refuted media reports that claim that her ministry has conflicting views on Chikungunya cases in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Minister Liburd told ZIZ News that while Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Patrick Martin, has noted that the number of Chikungunya cases has increased, the Ministry has the situation under control, so there is no conflict.

“Funny enough, Dr. Martin called me yesterday [Wednesday] having seen this article and said to me he didn’t see where the contradiction lies. I don’t understand it either because we were both speaking the truth with respect to the situation. We do have some increase in cases of Chikungunya but clinically, in terms of the management of Chikungunya, we are on top of things so the two things are not contradictory,” she said.

Minister Liburd also said most of the reported cases did not require hospitalization.

“That gives you an idea that the vast majority of the cases that we’re seeing are not very serious cases….it doesn’t merit hospitalization. But we have been able to manage the disease clinically and even if we have some other increases, which I hope we don’t have, we’ll still be able to manage Chikungunya.”