NOUMEA, New Caledonia (2 Mar 2009) — New Caledonia's health department has confirmed on Tuesday its first fatal case this year for the mosquito-borne dengue fever epidemic that is still spreading at an alarming rate in the French Pacific territory. The person who died as a result of the serotype 4 dengue virus has been described as a 59-year-old man who was residing in the Magenta district, in the outskirts of the capital Nouméa, near the domestic airport. Director of Health Dr Jean-Paul Grangeon told local Radio Nouvelle-Calédonie the number of known new cases of dengue was increasing steadily and was now estimated at over 1,400 since the beginning of this year. Of a particular concern was the pace of some eighty new cases per day: less than three weeks ago, the number of cases was only about 500. Two weeks later, that figure had nearly doubled. And over the past seven days, over three hundred new cases have been detected. The serotype 4 of the disease remained prevalent, as opposed to previous years, when it was the type 1 that had been responsible for most cases (over 1,100 cases for the whole of 2008). The main hotspot of the epidemic is the capital Nouméa and its greater area. But many new cases have also been reported in other parts of the French Pacific territory, including the South of the main island. Since last year, when the type 4 virus appeared around September 2008, awareness campaigns and targeted spraying of insecticides do not seem to have had a significant impact on the progression rate of the disease. Since last year also, New Caledonian authorities have stepped preventive measures to detect any imported case of dengue. The measures include heat-sensitive cameras that are now screening inbound passengers at the Nouméa-La Tontouta International airport. Any passenger with a detected unusually high body temperature is approached by health officials and asked to fill in a form and to get immediate medical attention. Once again, authorities have called on the support from the general public. They have also stressed that in order for any campaign to be effective, it must have the full support of the population, especially for all still waters spots (which are potential breeding sites for the vector mosquito's larvae) to be cleaned and any bushy area in compounds also eradicated. Other recommendations include the use of mosquito nets and mosquito personal repellents to avoid bites from the virus-carrying insect. Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes. Its early symptoms are fever, joint and muscular pains, headaches, nausea and in the later stages internal haemorrhage that can prove fatal if left untreated. The epidemic has triggered new measures from the French government, through its High Commission in New Caledonia. | | Health officials in New Caledonia fear a new epidemic of deadly serotype four dengue fever, which is rapidly spreading across the French Pacific territory. The Paris-based State Secretariat for Overseas last week asked New Caledonia's authorities to provide a list of their most immediate needs in the face of what is now described as a "concerning health situation". As a first step, in order to asses those needs, the French High commission has also announced it was despatching coordinators and commissioners-delegates to all of New Caledonia's provincial governments. Another immediate measure was a financial package of some 165,000 Euros (212,000 US dollars) to purchase more medical equipment to be used to step up the fight against dengue, on the prevention and eradication fronts. This includes insecticide spraying machines, as well as personal mosquito repellents to be distributed to the population. The other concern is the combination of the quasi-endemic serotype 1 of the virus and the newly-arrived serotype 4, to which residents have not been exposed for the past thirty years, which makes them more vulnerable, especially if they have already been infected a first time by the type 1 virus. New Caledonia, just like most of the South-western Pacific islands, has experienced particular hot and humid weather in the past few weeks, a regular feature in this southern hemisphere hot tropical season. The situation has been further complicated by an unusual abundance of tropical depressions that have brought torrential rains and have caused severe, deadly and destructive flooding in Australia's State of Queensland, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. In all of these countries, where a post-flooding situation still exists, local public health authorities are still struggling to contain an upsurge of water-borne diseases, including dengue fever, but also leptospirosis, typhoid and diarrhoea. As a result, since last year, the type 4 dengue fever has also appeared on a larger scale in neighbouring Fiji (over two thousand cases), Samoa, American Samoa, Kiribati and Palau. by Patrick Antoine Decloitre |
