A grassroots effort is raising both dollars and awareness as Milolii takes its dengue fight to the Internet.
Following the confirmation of four cases of the disease, the South Kona fishing village is raising funds online to buy mosquito nets, child-friendly repellent and mosquito coils. A gofundme.com site set up to purchase the supplies was nearly two thirds of the way toward its $3,000 goal on Saturday.
The push for funds came as the state Department of Land and Natural Resources closed more land in the area. In addition to the Milolii Beach Park — which was shut down last Wednesday — DLNR has placed off limits all unencumbered state lands in the immediate vicinity of Milolii Village and Honomalino Bay.
The closure apples to everyone except local residents and necessary personnel, DLNR announced on Friday.
Hawaii County Civil Defense, the state Department of Health and local response teams have been spraying for mosquitoes, collecting tires and identifying potential mosquito breeding sites in the village. Teams working over the past several days with a break for Christmas Day have selectively sprayed the entire village, inspected catchment tanks and set mosquito traps, said Lance Uchida, a battalion chief with the Hawaii County Fire Department.
Milolii’s Community Emergency Response Team has gone door-to-door at 110 homes, distributing information on how to combat the virus, said Gail Garoutte, a CERT member. The team identified 21 sites with standing water and were able to contact property owners and address all but a handful of the sites, she said.
“It’s not something that’s going to be solved in the next few days, but we’ve taken some big steps,” Garoutte said.
Officials closed Milolii Beach Park in response to the illnesses and to heavy mosquito activity in the area.
The total number of confirmed Big Island dengue cases increased to 181 on Friday. That’s since the first known incidences of the disease in September. Of those, seven cases are recent enough that they might still be infectious. In all, 163 residents and 18 visitors have been sickened. Thirty-six of them have been children.
Milolii has a number of kupuna and keiki in particular who could be vulnerable to dengue, Garoutte said.
The community organization Paa Pono Milolii hopes to be able to purchase and distribute the nets, DEET-free repellent lotion or spray and coils by New Year’s Eve.
When the same community was hit with a dengue outbreak back in 1993, no one knew that the illness was in fact dengue until residents were tested after the fact. Dengue eventually left the village on its own.
This time, the community knows what it is fighting.
“Everyone here is pretty on top of it,” Garoutte said. “At least now they all have the information. What they do with it is their decision.”
For more information, visit https://www.gofundme.com/ztg9544s
