Dengue cases

The Ministry of Health’s Director of Public Health, Len Tarivonda said these cases had no history of travel outside of Vanuatu, so the dengue was locally acquired.

Residents in Port Vila and the surrounding areas of Teouma, Erakor, Pango, Nambatu, Namburu, Tebakor, Malapoa, Bladinere, Freshwota and Beverly Hills have been urged to take necessary steps to prevent themselves from getting infected with dengue.

The Team Coordinator, Health Security and Communicable Diseases, Angela Merianos, says outbreaks were reported from American Samoa, Fiji, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu in 2017.

She said Wallis and Futuna has had an outbreak of dengue type 1, with French Polynesia and New Caledonia having both serotypes 1 and 2 of the illness.

Dr Merianos said Niue has had types 2 and 4, with Kiribati recently reporting type 2 dengue fever.

A statement from the ministry said 29 patients have been hospitalised at the Northern Provincial Hospital whilst 57 cases are being managed at home.

All suspected dengue cases are reported from the Northern Provincial Hospital.

The Ministry of Health, through the national and provincial disease surveillance system, is currently monitoring the situation in Luganville, Santo as well as in other provinces and islands

No suspected or confirmed cases have been reported from other provinces or islands.

Although other islands and provinces have not reported dengue cases, authorities are also monitoring them.

Of the six suspected dengue cases reported from the Northern Province since 8 February, four were tested positive.

Five of the patients have been hospitalized at the Northern Provincial Hospital whilst one patient is being treated at home.

A press release said all the suspected cases are statement from the Northern Provincial Hospital.

Blood samples from patients will be sent to New Caledonia for further testing.

Fiji has now confirmed 143 cases, Nauru has confirmed more than 50, and 13 have been confirmed in American Samoa.

That follows outbreaks in Solomon Islands which has had more than 10,000 dengue cases in the last seven months, and in Vanuatu which has had more than 1700 cases since November.

RNZ reports in New Caledonia three people have died and a health emergency has been declared as more than 1-thousand cases have been recorded since September.

RNZ reports this comes after over 1,000 suspected cases had been reported.

The Health Ministry has started a media blitz to encourage the public to report to the nearest health centre when a person is suspected to be sick with dengue.

A dengue zero tolerance campaign was launched last month.

Dengue fever is transmitted by the bites of an Andes mosquito infected with a dengue virus.

Director of Public Health, Dr Len Tarivonda says from the 14 cases 6 are confirmed while 8 are suspects whose blood samples are now being tested in New Zealand.

He said the cases come from Port Vila mainly from the central and southern wards.

Dr Tarivonda said from the 14 cases, only one was admitted while the rest were managed at their respective homes.