Authorities rush to deal with dengue in Tonga

Transcript

Tonga has been hit by a dengue outbreak which has triggered frantic action from authorities in the kingdom.

More than 40 cases of the disease have been confirmed since the start of the year.

Koro Vaka'uta reports on the situation.

This wet season has seen soaring rates of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue across the Pacific and Tonga is the latest to be hit. The head of the non-communicable disease unit Dr 'Ofa Tukia says for the whole of 2014, Tonga had 46 cases reported. The kingdom has almost surpassed that amount already this year and Dr Tukia fears the outbreak has only just begun.

DR 'OFA TUKIA:  These are only the confirmed cases with the exclusion of suspects.  There are hundreds of suspects now all over Tonga.

As a result a major clean-up operation involving health authorities, the National Disaster Management Office and the Red Cross is taking place. A collaborative effort is being made to minimise the number of mosquito breeding areas. This is being done by clearing areas of rubbish, old vehicles and objects where water may gather. Dr Tukia says the community is getting behind the effort.

DR 'OFA TUKIA:  There are other businesses, they are involved in providing funds and also some vehicles for the collection of breeding materials.  You know the tyres, the empty buckets and things around the community.  They have to collect it and take it to the dumping area.

The Red Cross is also preparing to distribute mosquito nets to the public. The General Secretary Sione Taumoefolau says the organisation has built up a large amount of emergency supplies thanks to help from New Zealand and Australia.

SIONE TAUMOEFOLAU:  This year we have about 100% coverage of the whole kingdom.  We have here mosquito nets if there is any need to be distributed we can do it.  If we can do our cleaning faster then the mosquito nets won't need much distribution.  We have the stock around Tonga.  We have about 4 to 5 thousand mosquito nets ready to be used.

Dr Tukia is hoping the outbreak will be dealt with by the middle of the year.

DR 'OFA TUKIA:  If we do our community outreach right then it will subside.  Probably in two months from now, if we continue to be active with our public community outreach programme and together we have our media awareness programme.  

In the meantime the Director of Health Dr Siale 'Akau'ola is promoting what he calls an innovative way to stop mosquito breeding near water supplies and help curb the disease.

DR SIALE 'AKAU'OLA:  One of the methods that is being used at the moment is to advise people to pour vegetable oil to produce a film on top of these water tanks so that the larvae cannot breathe when they try to surface through the water.  There's a large number of fresh water tanks that people use and of course they can also serve as breeding sites for the mosquitoes.

Health authorities say they expect a new report on cases in the outer islands over the weekend.