Cook Islands celebrations bring Chikungunya concerns

Transcript

Health officials in the Cook Islands are concerned an influx of visitors for the country's 50th anniversary celebrations will reignite a Chikungunya outbreak that has only just been brought under control.

The Director of Public Health, Dr Neti Herman, says there have been 746 cases of the mosquito-borne virus this year, with 73 cases in one week at the peak of the outbreak in April.

Dr Herman says the number of cases is now on the decline after a massive cleanup operation and education campaign, with only four cases last week.

But she told Jamie Tahana that with a lot of people arriving in the country for the celebrations, there are fears the numbers could pick up again.

NETI HERMAN: The chikungunya really started in October last year, and from October to December they only recorded 15 cases. But in 2015 from January until now there are 746 cases of chikungunya. However, the good news is that it is now on the decline, the chikungunya cases peaked in April this year when there were 73 cases in a particular week, and I think in regards to this there has been a lot of wet weather here in the Cook Islands and of course with chikungunya being spread by the mosquitos that kind of weather is very favourable for the breeding of mosquitos, hence that the number really peaked in April this year. The Public Health, they did a lot of prevention work and they sprayed the homes of any new cases that has been identified and then the cases started to drop. Last week we only had 15 cases identified. So we are very pleased with the outcome.

JAMIE TAHANA: This reduction, do you take it as a sign that the outbreak is under control, or is over?

NH: Well, we take it that it's under control. However, because the mosquito is still here we are still asking the community to take precautions apart from what we're doing by spraying their homes, we are also using mosquito repellant and we are giving advice to the tourists who come to the Cook Islands and we have staff at the airport, and we have posters we display at the airport, and we have flyers, so this is all a combination of factors. Beside the health, we also thank the community for their contribution by getting rid of all the breeding sites of the mosquitos. I think that this is the only way that we can actually get rid of the chikungunya.

JT: You say with the airport programme and stuff, the Cook Islands is expecting a big influx of people for the 50th anniversary celebrations. Is there concern that that may bring a further outbreak of chikungunya?

NH: We are a bit concerned and that's the reason why we've been really advising our people to keep the breeding sites clear of mosquitos. We've been working very closely with the ministry of tourism and they've been very active in their support of trying to warn tourists that when they come they wear protective clothes and don't unnecessarily expose their arms and all that. If they use repellent, that should be OK.