Dengue Outbreak

While cases of dengue fever on Ebeye Island have dropped to a daily trickle, Majuro continues to see high numbers, according to the latest report from the Ministry of Health and Human Services.

President Hilda Heine signed the second one-month extension of the declaration of health emergency, which will see it extend to early November.

Ebeye is where the dengue outbreak started, with the first case reported in late May.

Relief Web reports that between the 8th and 16th of April, 42 suspected dengue cases were reported in the capital Port Vila and Luganville.

The surge in suspected cases has been linked in part to travel between various Pacific Islands territories.

One of the Vila reports was an imported case from a traveller coming from Solomon Islands in January.

Another confirmed case detected in Luganville has travel history to New Caledonia.

The DENV-2 serotype of dengue has been circulating in Vanuatu for the last 2 years.

Of these cases, one was a visitor from French Polynesia with dengue type 3, while the others were dengue type 1.

The ministry said authorities have diagnosed four probable dengue cases this week, one of whom recently arrived from Fiji.

It is reminding the public keep home and work environments clean and to safely dispose of water-retaining containers; to avoid mosquito bites by covering up, using repellents and screen doors, and to see a doctor if fever, pain behind the eyes, or muscle aches develop.

Aupito William Sio was responding to the outbreak of dengue in Tonga where a New Zealand girl contracted the disease and died.

The 12-year-old had been visiting family in the kingdom.

Aupito has called for greater regional awareness about the risk of dengue, saying public health authorities have lots of information available internally.

A health team was at Emae, monitoring community mobilisation and awareness work.

As at 3 April, total number of cases notified for the two provinces where the Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) is focused are Shefa 1,271 and Malampa 166.

According to a report on ReliefWeb, in terms of the two Island locations that the EPoA community mobilization and awareness activities are focused: Emae has had three cases confirmed and 11 cases suspected. Malekula has had 166 notified cases.

The first training on Safety Operations was conducted on February 7, 2017 in Malekula, Malampa Province.

The Health and WASH Coordinator of Vanuatu Red Cross Society Sandrine Benjimen says the training is still underway and it will be extended to Emae Island where the Dengue Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) will be implemented.

According to the Ministry of Health in Vanuatu, the outbreak of dengue serotype-2 is ongoing with 1,831 cases reported as of March 2, 2017. There were 45 hospitalisations since November 2016.