Fiji is preparing for any dengue virus outbreak
Updated
The Fijian Government is preparing for a dengue virus outbreak as the country enters the heart of its wet-season. One initiative is the Dengue Fever Clean-Up Campaign, where information booklets are distributed and community clean-up events are held. But some experts have warned against the non-targeted approach.
Presenter: James Oaten
Speakers: Dr Eric Fatai from the Fijian Department of Health; Savaira Raiyawa who is spearheading the campaign for the Suva Rural Local Authority; Professor Brian Kay from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research
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OATEN: Fijians are being asked to clean up their neighbourhood as part of a national anti-Dengue fever campaign.
Dr Eric Fatai is a national adviser for Communicable Diseases to the Fijian Department of Health. He says the campaign is about informing the public so communities can act against an outbreak.
FATAI: They are actually mobilising their resources to actually have the clean ups. Like the councils have organised transport for picking up additional garbage and actually encouraging the communities on an active clean up campaign and collective activity.
OATEN: There are four types of Dengue virus that cause Dengue Fever worldwide. The virus which is transmitted by a particular type of mosquitoe is rarely fatal. It is, however, agonising. Symptoms can include muscle aches and pains, vomitting, diarrohoea, abdominal pain, extreme fatigue, fever and bleeding. The young and the elderly are at greater risk of catching the virus, but experts say symptom severity is a role of the dice.
Savaira Raiyawa is spearheading the campaign for the Suva Rural Local Authority. One of the many councils in Fiji participating in the program.
She says her council is targetting settlements with poor sewerage systems as mosquitoes use stagnant water for breeding.
Six primary schools have also jumped on board to help promote awareness and participate in clean up activities.
RAIYAWA: We need them to participate in this program, just for them to be aware, because children like our future generation they'll know this disease it s a deadly virus disease which they have to know, and the causes, so that they can familiarise themselves that this is the Dengue Fever Awareness campaign.
OATEN: Professor Bryan Kay from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research has previously consulted the Fijian Government on Dengue prevention strategies.
Professor Kay says the country is particularly vulnerable, because it has three additional types of mosquitoes that can carry the virus. He says his research conducted in 1992 found that large scale clean up activities can have a limited affect.
KAY: Paradoxically, tins, tyres and assorted rubbish, bottles, for example, that may breed a few mosquitoes in them were producing less than three per cent of the Dengue mosquitoes. So at that time, Fiji was actually spending about 49 per cent of its budget on clean-up campaigns and that if successful would only result in reducing the number of Dengue mosquitoes by about three per cent. So in some cases, clean-up campaigns are not a good idea.
OATEN: Professor Cave says anti-Dengue campaigns need a targeted approach.
KAY: The team I worked on in Fiji years ago showed quite conclusively that tyres and drums were producing the bulk of the Dengue mosquitoes. So the first thing you have got to do is understand where your mosquitoes are coming from, and then secondly of course design an appropriate program that is going to be aimed at the bulk of the mosquitoes that may be causing the disease.
OATEN: There are between 50 to 100 million reported cases of Dengue worldwide each year of which 12 to 20,000 are fatal.
Fiji has had at least 13 outbreaks of the disease.
The last outbreak occurred in September last year, with about 2,000 reported cases and no fatalities.
In 1998, however, there were 14,000 cases and 13 deaths.
Dr Fatai, I will be attending a World Health Organisation meeting on the Dengue virus in Vietnam later this year to discuss prevention initiatives.
FATAI: We recognise that the outbreaks in the Pacific usually occur from one Pacific Island to another, so it is not only a national activity that we inform everyone about any Dengue campaigns. We also mindful about the Dengue activities around our neighbouring Pacific Island countries.
