The Ministry of Health’s Continued Enhanced Surveillance, Confirms One Additional Case for Malaria

The vector for Malaria is predominantly the Anopheles species of mosquito. This mosquito primarily bites during the night. It is noteworthy that unlike Dengue, Chikungunya and Zika, Malaria is not spread by a virus.

Early symptoms of Malaria include fever, chills, headaches and fatigue, which may start within 10-15 days of being bitten by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Persons experiencing any of these symptoms should visit their nearest health facility.

Clean your surroundings and remove any mosquito breeding sites!

Did you know that your home or yard could be a potential breeding ground for mosquitoes?

Common mosquito breeding sites include:
👉Old tyres
👉Discarded buckets and containers
👉Abandoned tins or paint cans
👉 Unmaintained wading or swimming pools
To help protect yourself and your family from mosquito-borne diseases take action by removing these breeding sites from your surroundings.

Port of Spain, April 2, 2025: The Ministry of Health is currently investigating a cluster of Malaria cases in South Trinidad. As of today, April 2, 2025, five cases have been confirmed, including the primary source, which brings the total number of cases for 2025 to five (5); as there were no other confirmed cases for 2025.

Trinidad and Tobago is not endemic for Malaria, and as such, the majority of cases confirmed each year are imported and/or introduced. Over the period 2015 to 2024 there have been 153 confirmed cases, which is an average of 15 cases per year.

These five cases are in a well-defined geographic area, and the following field work has been conducted by the Insect Vector Control Division (IVCD), after the identification of the first case on March 27, 2025:

Vector Control Methods

• The homes of all identified cases, as well as those in at least a 1-mile radius were sprayed via truck mounted, Ultra Low Volume (ULV) to immediately kill the adult mosquitoes,
• Hand-held thermal fogging was conducted around the homes (this is conducted in areas where ULV was not possible),
• Internal residual spraying (IRS) with longer lasting insecticide effect was conducted within homes (the effect of which, last approximately three months),
• Perifocal inspection of homes was also conducted to identify potential breeding sites of the Anophelesspecies of mosquitoes.

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