Campaign Key in Dengue Fight: Minister
Minister Waqainabete attributes success to efforts of parents, health officials.
The Minister for Health and Medical Services, Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete, has praised the efforts of health officials and the public in preventing a dengue outbreak.
He believes the national clean-up campaign and the wolbachia programme have been effective tools in addressing dengue in the country.
“Fiji has not had an outbreak of dengue as it did to the extent in the past,” he said.
“We have been very fortunate that with dengue, we think may have had only one death and about nearly 3000 Fijians affected as opposed to the number we used to see it in the past.”
In the early 2000, he said the country would see at least 30,000 Fijians affected. In the 2014 outbreak, he said many Fijians were infected with dengue.
“A lot of things have happened, which I believe has helped. Number one is the awareness. I am glad to see the clean-up campaigns all around the country and I ask that we should all support the neighbourhood clean-up. “Number two, is the wolbachia programme that started off in the Lami-Nausori corridor. Now it is going to finish in the Nadi-Ba corridor, where they are sending out the wolbachia mosquitoes, which will nullify the mosquitoes that have dengue in it.
“We believe that it has been very helpful but again, it requires action,” Dr Waqainabete said.
The programme involves releasing mosquitoes that carry wolbachia. Wolbachia are natural and safe bacteria that reduce the ability of Aedes aegypti (dengue) mosquitoes to transmit viruses between people. The mosquitoes released breed with the wild Aedes aegypti mosquitoes in the area, passing wolbachia to their offspring.
Public health teams and officials, he said were on the ground visiting communities, talking about dengue, and using enforcement under the Public Health Act.
The minister also commended the public, especially the parents for working with the ministry and allowing their children to be vaccinated. “I continue to thank the parents and believe that this is one of the reasons why measles has not developed in the nation so far,” Dr Waqainabete said.