Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Minister of Health, Jorge Figueiredo, said this Monday in the city of Praia that the swine fever registered on the island of Boa Vista is already under control, with strategies already implemented by the Government for its eradication.
This statement was made to the press, on the sidelines of a visit made today to INSP (National Institute of Public Health) as part of the proximity management strategy with the aim of getting to know the institution’s functionality ‘in loco’ and sharing ongoing projects, challenges and future perspectives.
According to the minister, the next step will be the execution of a series of actions between the Ministries of Health and Agriculture and Livestock to ensure the definitive elimination of the disease.
“It is necessary to define between the Ministry of Health, (…) and the Ministry of Agriculture [livestock], to define the strategies to be implemented. Now there is a set of actions that will be carried out so that the total elimination of swine fever can be definitively declared a posteriori,” he said.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAA) announced in February this year an outbreak of African swine fever in Boa Vista, a highly contagious viral disease among pigs, which causes great economic losses but does not pose any risk to human health.
During his statement, Jorge Figueiredo warned of the increase in HIV/AIDS cases globally, particularly among young people aged 15 to 24, and assured that Cape Verde is closely monitoring this situation.
As he said, the increase may be related to changes in behavior during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It seems to be related to changes in behavior during the periods when we had Covid-19. There is also an increase in cases of syphilis, including neonatal syphilis. But we are following, we are doing our job. Everything indicates that there is a tendency towards normalization of the data here as we advance with the research”, he added.
The minister also said that the country has invested in prevention, with emphasis on the introduction of the HPV vaccine, ensuring that all children aged 10 to 14 are practically vaccinated, and that coverage is being expanded to young people up to 30 years old.
“All children, ages 10 to 14, young people, women and boys are practically 100% vaccinated. We are therefore expanding the target population. We are already increasing it to 25 to 30 years.” He assured.
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