Transcript
JOSEPHINE HERMAN: We have managed to hold and contain the dengue outbreak. As of yesterday evening [Friday] we had 50 cases. 22 of these have been confirmed in New Zealand in terms of laboratory testing and the other 28 are based on clinical symptoms and the likelihood that they are dengue cases.
DON WISEMAN: Do you think more people will contract it?
JH: I do think more people will it. What we are doing in terms of responding to cases that arise as they arise is to ensure that we have done spraying of their homes and their surroundings, up to 200 and 400 metres radius, and on top of that there has been quite a bit of education for the public regarding keeping their home environment clean, covering up and using insect repellent to ensure they minimise the risk of them getting bitten by the mosquito.
DW: What sort of preventive measures are health authorities taking. You say you are spraying where the victims were but what about other areas, what are you doing?
JH: What we have been putting in place, starting in February, when we declared the outbreak, has been vector control measures because that is the way you get rid of this, and that's getting rid of the mosquito, in particular. So we have set up mosquito surveillance sites around the high risk areas, in particular around our hospital, where many of our unwell patients are, or coming to seek our services. So we are ensuring that we are monitoring the environment around the hospital, keeping it clean and making sure there are little opportunities to breed or rest around the hospital setting. So that is where we have put surveillance there and when we pick up larvae that suggest the mosquito is alive and well in that area then we activate spraying. We have also activated mosquito surveillance sites for the larvae at the international airport as well as the harbour where the ships come in, as well as Punanga Nui market, which is one of our main areas where many of our people come to congregate and do shopping, on Saturday morning in particular. So those are some of the strategies that we have put in place, as well as when we have a case reported to us, we follow up on the case in terms of the public health aspects. In terms of the clinical aspects we are quite clear with our front line doctors, in terms of recognising the symptoms of dengue, and that's fever, with a bit of nausea, joint pain, body aches and pains. We have testing that occurs and through the testing we are able to diagnose whether this is likely to be dengue. We also check their full blood count because one of the issues is that the virus can cause your platelets, which are responsible for blood clotting, to reduce. So we monitor these patients very carefully.
DW: What is the status of the people who have been confirmed with dengue?
JH: To date, of the 50 cases we have had 32 cases admitted to hospital and discharged. We have been fortunate that there have been no deaths from this because we do know that, while for the majority of patients you can have a mild flu like illness, there is always the risk that things can go wrong and patients can succumb to dengue. So we have been fortunate but in saying that, there was a time, earlier on in the outbreak when we had a very sick person, but we were talking to New Zealand and in the end, as with most viral infections, most patients will recover and we were fortunate with a good outcome for this patient.
DW: This is a lot worse than recent years for the Cooks?
JH: Well the last time we had an outbreak with dengue we had a 1000 cases. And I think we have become better at diagnosing and implementing vector control strategies much more efficiently this time round, which is why we have managed to contain the numbers at 50. We still don't like the number, we wish it could be less, because we do want to be sure that we are protecting our population. But we are working very hard in the medium and longer term strtategy to eliminate the mosquito completely. So there are some discussions already underway in terms of engaging or communicating with the World Mosquito Programme, WHO and SPC to help us strengthen our vector control strategy. In June we will be having some experts from New Zealand coming into the country to help train our workforce to strengthen our vector control initiatives that we have implemented.
