Residents remember 1943 dengue fever outbreak
| • | Online special: Dengue fever: health crisis in the making |
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
The last time Hawai'i suffered a major outbreak of dengue fever, it was 1943.
Hamilton Library • Aug. 15, 1943
Thoughts then were on World War II, but Honolulu also was waging war against mosquitoes that spread the disease.
Army personnel sprayed insecticide in Waikiki to kill mosquitoes carrying dengue fever during the 1943 outbreak.
Two servicemen on O'ahu came down with dengue fever in July 1943, just after returning from the Southwest Pacific. Fearing the disease would spread, the military led a door-to-door spraying campaign.
"I was living in a cottage on Hobron Lane in Waikiki," said Remy Latour, now 85 and living in Kailua. "They came knocking on the door and asked us if we had any open containers. The military, they were so worried, they put guards at the entrances of Waikiki. If you didn't live there, you couldn't go in."
About 7,000 air-raid wardens were assigned to destroy mosquitoes, and 300 servicemen visited houses and offices at 10-day intervals for months, marking sidewalks with chalk to indicate which areas had been inspected. Teenagers were paid 50 cents an hour to help.
The military also closed off parts of Kalihi, Kaka'ako, McCully, Nu'uanu, Makiki and Punchbowl.
Part of Rudolph Stamm's Waikiki neighborhood was off-limits from Aug. 8 to Sept. 13 that year. Stamm came down with the illness himself, although he never went to the doctor to officially be diagnosed.
"It was like fish poisoning," said Stamm, now 74 and living in Mililani. "It's the same feeling. When you'd take a shower, the shower would tingle and burn you. If you laid in bed, you'd feel worse."
Movie theaters showed trailers urging audiences to help stop the spread of dengue fever by emptying water containers and draining plants.
The U.S. public health service brought in a federal expert to battle the bugs.
Honolulu's Chamber of Commerce chipped in $16,500 for the fight, and the community association in Wahiawa raised nearly $1,000 for the cause.
A chemical warfare decontamination company poured disinfectant over possible mosquito-breeding spots, and work crews removed whole gardens of lilies and tropical plants. Soldiers wearing "dengue control" arm bands even poured kerosene in tree holes and canvassed bomb shelters, tire piles and storm drains looking for mosquitoes.
Honolulu newspaper editorials warned that the illness could have serious economic consequences and severely hamper the war effort. Handbills promoted a "Bottom's Up" campaign, urging homeowners to empty bottles, cans and tires of standing water. Failing to comply after warnings resulted in $25 fines.
American Sanitary Laundry in Kaka'ako closed down while 75 employees suffered from fevers, headaches and rashes brought on by the infection.
McKinley High School sprayed inside and out after 75 students and faculty members came down with symptoms of dengue fever. Iolani School and the surrounding neighborhood reported 18 cases.
Patients were isolated under mosquito nets and visited by nurses.
The pain was so bad, many sufferers called it "breakbone fever" because they said it felt like their bones were breaking.
Despite eradication efforts, 1,500 people on O'ahu still became ill, and the territorial board of health attributed two deaths that year to the epidemic.
The threat returned to Hawai'i in the 1970s, but only two dengue cases were confirmed. Two airline workers contracted dengue fever while in Fiji and Tahiti, where an epidemic had been raging. At the time, many people considered dengue a relic that existed only in isolated parts of the developing world.
But as mosquito-borne diseases declined, so did spending on mosquito-control programs.
Today, the dengue fever outbreak on Maui has made the national news, and warnings are spreading on Internet travel reviews about Hawai'i's worst outbreak of the disease since World War II. So far, 48 cases are confirmed, mostly on East Maui. But more than 220 possible cases are under investigation statewide.
Those who remember the 1940s epidemic understand why health officials are taking the new threat so seriously.
Howard Oda was a teenager more than half a century ago when he became part of a crew checking house to house in Wahiawa for mosquitoes a few years after the 1943 epidemic.
They checked plant containers and fish ponds, and designated areas of town were fogged at night.
Oda still remembers the wrath of irate homeowners who didn't want to comply, and he said he still has scars to prove the risks of the days with no dog-leash laws. Workers feared dog bites more than dengue fever, he said.
Oda said he hopes people learned something from those days about preventing an epidemic. He urges people to look around their homes and rid yards of conditions where mosquitoes might breed.
"Huli da watta," he said. "It's a very simple thing."
Reach Tanya Bricking at tbricking@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8026.
