The Ja­maica gov­ern­ment Fri­day con­firmed an out­break of lep­tospiro­sis with health au­thor­i­ties say­ing that six peo­ple have so far died as a re­sult.

“The out­break fol­lows the pas­sage of Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa which has cre­at­ed con­di­tions that have in­creased the risk of ex­po­sure to con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed wa­ter and soil,” Health and Well­ness Min­is­ter Dr. Christo­pher Tufton told a news con­fer­ence, adding that there has al­so been a rise in con­firmed and sus­pect­ed cas­es across eight parish­es.

Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa hit Ja­maica on Oc­to­ber 28 caus­ing wide­spread dam­age, main­ly to the west­ern sec­tion of the is­land. At least 42 peo­ple have died and 15 are miss­ing. The dam­age is es­ti­mat­ed at near­ly nine bil­lion US dol­lars.