Dengue risk to tourists low, state says

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

The state Health Department epidemiologist says he suspects the risk of dengue fever to tourists is low and that visitors claiming they have suffered from the illness have been misinformed.

Since the start of the outbreak last summer, about 50 visitors have asked for testing, but none has tested positive for the illness by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dr. Paul Effler, state epidemiologist.

Two visitors from California told state health officials that private commercial tests showed they had contracted dengue fever. Effler said those kinds of tests are generally unreliable.

"People have jumped to the conclusion that dengue is going to tourists," he said. "In my opinion, some of the commercial tests have not performed well when you compare them to the CDC confirmation tests. From the beginning of the outbreak, we have always viewed them as interesting but not significant."

The state is trying to test any visitor who thinks he or she had come down with dengue fever.

Maui District Health Officer Dr. Lorrin Pang said Monday that he's received calls since the dengue outbreak this summer about possibilities of visitors contracting dengue while visiting the island.

Pang said he's trying to coordinate the lab test for the two visitors who have since returned to their homes in California. Their names and hometowns were not released.

Although a private laboratory has tested the California visitors as positive for dengue, the health department still needs confirmation from a federally approved lab.

"I frankly think we are going to find that the risk to tourists is very, very low," Effler said.

The state has requested tests on 20 possible cases involving visitors who had traveled to Maui in September or October and then contacted Hawai'i health officials when they suffered from an illness they felt was dengue fever, Effler said.

By comparison, fewer than 20 cases have been reported in the last two weeks by Hawai'i residents, he said.

"It is really slowing down," he said. "There is a lot less dengue-like activity. The indication is that this is going in the right direction, that it is on the wane."

The state has urged residents to remain vigilant and to keep removing standing water around their homes to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.

The dengue virus, which is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes, causes fever, headache and rashes on the palms and feet. It is believed to have been imported to Hawai'i by people traveling from Tahiti or American Samoa, where the disease is epidemic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.