Sunday, January 29, 2006

you read it here first...

...well sort of, in English anyway. This crazy mosquito borne virus has certainly been hitting the headlines this past week and we are even to be blessed with a visit by the Minister of Health himself. Thanks to Chikungunya the schools will remain closed for an extra week - after all two months of holiday is just not enough - and one needs to treat all public places; and two months is just not long enough. So, what is to happen is that the schools will be closed but will open as the parents have nowhere to install their offspring whilst working. One must understand that the schools are to remain closed whilst they are demosquitofied, yet they will be open for those children who would otherwise be walking the streets - which haven't been demosquitofied. This is all the more intriguing when one considers that most schools in infected areas were treated before Xmas and a lot of the students have already had the Chik as it is affectionately known. Why am I constantly dreaming of stable doors these days?

It is certain that news of the island "plague" is spreading and this morning I was delighted to see that the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4658982.stm) has seen fit to illuminate the plight of us "islanders". Now "we" are drafting troops to kill mosquitos, which just proves that the war on terror is not respecter of size, be it a volcano or a mosquito. I look forward to the ensuing report on the effect of massive pesticide inhalation on the population...

There are still no cases of the Chi, where I live but I did descend today to the balmy lows of St Leu for a swim, snorkel and a bowl of chips. I did not see any mosquitos- well none that were behaving suspiciously - mind you, when I do succumb i'll probably be amoaning like every one else but then not on the apocalyptic scale of the Journal (www.clicanoo.com)...

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