34 new dengue cases in Samoa

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — If you’re going to Samoa over the next few weeks, you may want to keep an eye out for possible dengue fever infection — especially if you will be visiting in the North-West Upolu and Apia areas.

Samoa's Ministry of Health has released its latest dengue fever numbers, with 34 new cases recorded in the week from April 15 to 21.

This brings the total cases reported from laboratory testing since November last year to 250.

Persons aged 60 years and over, and people living in the North-West Upolu and Apia areas, account for the majority of confirmed cases.

The Ministry of Health declared a dengue outbreak on Aril 19, after more than 80 cases were reported in the first two weeks of April.

A national half-day cleanup holiday for public servants was called on Friday to help alleviate mosquitos, which carry and transmit dengue.

Fumigation mission dates are yet to be confirmed by public health.

People are warned not to take medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, or other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as these drugs increase the risk of bleeding, which can be deadly.

Professor Cameron Simmons, director of global delivery at the World Mosquito Program said he expects the outbreak to calm down over the winter period.

"The outbreak in Samoa is likely to dwindle when it gets a bit cooler - the mosquito population will shrink naturally," he said.

"That's what it does every winter and that will probably be the biggest influence on slowing the current outbreak."

A medical advisor from New Zealand's Immunization Advisory Centre, Dr Joan Ingram, said, "There are four different dengue viruses, and infection with one gives long-term protection from that virus, but may make the illness following one of the other three dengue viruses more serious.”

BACKGROUND

To date, The American Samoa Health Department is not reporting any dengue surge in the territory at this time, and no travel advisory — for residents traveling to Samoa — has been issued.

The last time American Samoa responded to a dengue fever outbreak was in 2015, where the local DoH on July 13, 2015, requested assistance from CDC to organize a response to an ongoing dengue outbreak associated with a high mortality rate.

It cited that since May 5, 2015, a total of 136 suspected dengue cases (~24 per 10,000 population) had been reported, of which 51 (38%) were hospitalized and four resulted in fatal outcome (apparent case-fatality rate [CFR] = 3%; ~0.7 fatal cases per 10,000 population). Of 21 specimens from suspected dengue patients that were tested by rRT-PCR at Hawaii State Laboratory, 16 (76%) were positive for detection of DENV-3, including all four of the fatal cases.

Four of the six CDC outbreak response team members arrived in the territory on the evening of July 20, 2015, and the remaining two individuals arrived on July 22, 2015.