Big news about Hawaii Island’s dengue fever outbreak is expected today.
Big news about Hawaii Island’s dengue fever outbreak is expected today.
After the state Department of Health posted on its website Tuesday it would no longer post daily updates about dengue fever outbreak numbers, a spokeswoman confirmed that Gov. David Ige would discuss the vector-borne illness today.
Ige will make an announcement to the state about the “status of the dengue fever outbreak,” Janice Okubo said Tuesday.
“While HDOH will continue to closely monitor for new cases of locally transmitted disease, this site will no longer be updated on a daily basis after April 26, 2016,” the notice posted at http://health.hawaii.gov/docd/dengue-outbreak-2015 reads.
Okubo had no further information about the announcement, including whether the outbreak would be declared finished.
“We really don’t have anything else to say until tomorrow,” she said.
Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira could not be reached for comment as of press time Tuesday. An update was posted on Civil Defense’s website at 3 p.m. Tuesday but didn’t mention today’s announcement.
The Department of Health on Tuesday also posted an updated risk area map that showed no new activity had been reported and no areas on the island were at risk for infection as of April 20. That updates a map issued March 23 that listed the area mauka of Hookena at a moderate-risk area for infection and Kukio, Kalaoa, Kailua-Kona, Captain Cook, Kealakekua and Volcano as low-risk areas. No areas had a high risk for dengue infection last month.
According to the DOH, an outbreak cannot be declared finished until four weeks after the end of the infectious period of the last known case. A person with dengue is usually infectious for about a week.
No new cases of dengue fever have been confirmed on Hawaii Island in more than a month. The last case announced by the department was March 23 and the last onset of illness was March 17.
Since the start of the outbreak Sept. 11, 2015, 264 cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been confirmed on the island. Of those, 138 were Hawaii Island residents and 26 were visitors. Forty-six of the cases have been children younger than 18.
State health officials first announced the outbreak Oct. 27. On Feb. 8, Mayor Billy Kenoi issued a 60-day emergency proclamation. Ige followed suit Feb. 12 and on April 11, he extended the proclamation, that also covers Zika virus, for 60 days. Kenoi’s proclamation expired April 7.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.