Officials encouraged by slowdown in dengue cases
| • | Special report: Dengue fever: health crisis in the making |
By Yasmin Anwar
Advertiser Staff Writer
State public health officials are encouraged by an apparent slowdown in confirmed dengue fever cases, particularly in East Maui.
However, they warn that if Hawai'i does not keep up a war on mosquitoes, the disease could flare up for decades, just as it has in dengue hot spots Tahiti and Puerto Rico where once-mild outbreaks have turned into full-blown epidemics.
"The news coming back from East Maui is that we've fought a good battle and maybe we're winning, and maybe we've contained this," said Gary Gill, the state's deputy director for environmental health. "But that's not to say the war is over ... this is a low-intensity conflict that flares up in different hot spots around the state."
So far, the dengue strain that has infected 62 people in the Islands has proved to be relatively mild, with no cases requiring hospitalization.
But health officials say a new strain of the mosquito-borne virus could enter the Islands, given an increase in travel between Hawai'i and the South Pacific, as well as other areas where the fever is endemic.
For those already exposed to this wave, a new strain could be more severe.
"There is a greater chance that they will have more complications and have the illness called dengue hemorrhagic fever," said state communicable diseases chief Dr. Phil Bruno.
As of yesterday, the number of federally confirmed dengue cases in Hawai'i stood at 52 on Maui, six on O'ahu and four on Kaua'i. O'ahu's victims include one resident of Makiki, one in Kailua, two in Kane'ohe and two in La'ie.
Victims range from children to the elderly, but most are between 30 and 50, said state Health Director Bruce Anderson.
On Maui and Kaua'i, there appears to be a Tahiti connection. For example, a surfer who contracted the disease in Tahiti returned to Kaua'i, where a couple of his roommates subsequently became infected. The virus may have entered Hana via a hula halau that traveled to Tahiti.
As for how it spread in the Hana area, residents there have told health officials that they suspect some contracted the virus at the community phone booth in Nahiku, where people and mosquitoes congregate. Vector control crews have sprayed that location, and the mosquito population appears to have declined.
The dengue virus is spread via Aedes mosquitoes. A victim must be bitten by a dengue-infected mosquito and cannot catch the virus directly from another person.
In a case of classic dengue fever, victims suffer high fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, rash and pain behind the eyes. The more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate of about 5 percent.
The best way to control dengue fever is to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds such as containers that collect water.
Statewide, vector control crews have sprayed more than 1,000 locations. However, they are spread thin. That's why they're mobilizing volunteers to go out into the community and put out word that people must clear their own backyards of potential mosquito breeding areas.
