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Medical staff trying to keep basic services going on the devastated Caribbean island of Dominica urgently need support, including reliable food supplies.

That’s the plea from Clemens Buter, team leader in Dominica for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in an interview on the hurricane-ravaged island, with UN News.

He said that 29 out of 49 health centres suffered “severe” damage when Category 5 Hurricane Maria struck the island on 18 September.

Challenges facing the Haitian government and UN teams, working to vaccinate 800,000 people from cholera, can be overcome to reach the most vulnerable.

That’s according to Jean-Luc Poncelet, who heads the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and World Health Organization (WHO) teams in the Caribbean country.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is offering to help Brazil and other countries in the Americas reduce the mosquito population as part of the battle against Zika.

The agency is advocating the use of the Sterile Insect Technique, or SIT, which uses radiation to sterilize male mosquitoes.

Cuba has become the first country to receive validation from the World Health Organization (WHO) for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.

WHO and its regional office, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), have been working with Cuba and other countries since 2010 to reduce the number of transmissions.