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San Juan.- A total of 340 people living in shelters in the Bahamas due to the devastation caused by hurricane Dorian were tested, and more than 80 of them were diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The Bahamas Minister of Health, Duane Sands, informed this Monday during a press conference that those who tested positive with skin tests are about to undergo chest X-rays for further examination.
Approximately a month ago, alarm was raised among health authorities of this archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean after one person in a shelter inside the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium tested positive for tuberculosis. Because of it, this person was admitted in a hospital for treatment.
Following this case, Bahamian authorities set in motion a medical test plan to detect tuberculosis cases in people in shelters inside public facilities of the Bahamas, mainly Haitians, after losing their homes when hurricane Dorian hit northwestern Bahamas last summer, specially the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama.
“The next step in the detection of the disease is a chest x-ray examination,” the government official said.
Sands indicated that the Bahamas have one of the lowest disease rates in the region, but the problem has caught the attention of local authorities as shelters are overcrowded with people who have lost their homes to hurricane Dorian, most of whom are Haitians illegally staying in the Bahamas.
“We have an aggressive public health protocol for eradicating tuberculosis,” highlighted the Minister of Health.
Sands said that, since the detection of the first tuberculosis case after hurricane Dorian, a plan has been implemented, which includes visits from health staff members to schools and communities to prevent the spread of the disease.
“These nearly 80 people who have already been examined now require a secondary examination,” he added.
Little over two weeks ago, the Bahamas Minister of Health informed in a statement that the origin of the infection detected a month ago in a person living in the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium remained unknown.
Damages caused by hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas are equivalent to 7 billion dollars, according to preliminary figures provided by Bahamian authorities.
Due to the destruction it caused, Dorian is considered one of the most devastating storms in Bahamian history.
Damages mainly occurred on the Abaco Islands and Grand Bahama, in northwestern Bahamas, but other areas of this Atlantic territory were virtually undamaged.
One of the hardest hit populations by hurricane Dorian was that of Haitian immigrants illegally staying in the Bahamas.
The government promoted the deportation of Haitians after the hurricane, but this was criticized by different human rights advocacy groups.