Westmoreland on hand-foot-and-mouth alert as St James drainage plan and El Niño heat warning land

Westmoreland’s public health department has put parents and school administrators on high alert after a rise in hand, foot and mouth disease across the parish, Medical Officer of Health Dr Marcia Graham said on CVM’s Sunrise morning programme on Monday, July 13, 2026.

Graham said pupils in basic, infant and early childhood institutions are most at risk from the highly contagious illness. Most cases are mild and clear within about a week, but she urged caregivers to keep sick children home until they recover fully, practise strong hygiene and report illness promptly. Warning signs include fever, loss of appetite, sore throat, painful mouth sores, and blisters on the palms, soles and often the buttocks. Public health inspectors and health educators are visiting affected institutions as soon as cases are confirmed.

In St James, flood-prone Katherine Hall and West Green are due for a long-term drainage fix after assessments done in the wake of Hurricane Melissa exposed weaknesses in the existing system. Works Minister Robert Morgan said floodwater from the Montego River combined with storm surge left residents navigating water as deep as 10 feet. The National Reconstruction Authority will lead the response, which must go beyond widening drains to account for storm surge and mud clearance after major floods.

Separately, Climate Services Manager Jacqueline Spence Hemmings of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica cautioned that a strengthening El Niño — warmer-than-usual Pacific surface waters — is likely to push Jamaica’s temperatures above average for the rest of the year and into early next year. The US Climate Prediction Center puts an 81 per cent chance on a very strong El Niño between October and December, among the largest such events since 1950.

On the sports desk, CVM reporter Kimani O’Sullivan noted that for the first time the world’s top four FIFA-ranked sides — Argentina, Spain, France and England — have all reached the World Cup semi-finals, and tipped England to lift the trophy for the first time since 1966.

Also on the show, attorney Natisha Johnson outlined Jamaica’s defamation rules — untrue statements that harm reputation, whether spoken, written or pictured — while consultant obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Ashley Ray Kelly-South marked Fibroid Awareness Month, stressing that fibroids are non-cancerous uterine growths more common and often more severe in Black women, and that heavy or prolonged bleeding warrants medical care. Animation students Ayana Barnett and Shamar Ranglin of the Edna Manley College, supported by the CB Foundation under executive director Gayon Douglas, previewed final-year shorts tackling kitchen-inspection chaos and lottery scam culture.