Dengue risk in Tonga,
Dengue fever is the biggest health risk posed to post-cyclone Tonga, with parts of the country still submerged in stagnant water in the wake of Cyclone Gita.
Pigs were swimming through stinking pools that surrounded a school one week after Gita tore through the South Pacific nation.
Many houses in the capital, Nuku’alofa, remain stranded in floodwaters.
The water made ideal breeding grounds for mosquitos – which carry the deadly tropical virus – and their larvae had already been spotted in some areas.
Manually draining the floods was taking ‘‘too long’’, said construction
"We'll be ... getting rid of that water because it's a huge Dengue hazard." Construction expert Saia Latu
expert Saia Latu yesterday; he believed limited technology and a lack of organisation were to blame.
Latu had flown from Auckland to Tonga after the cyclone to help with the clean up.
He said he had arranged for ‘‘heavy duty’’ pumps used in the construction of the Waterview Tunnel to be shipped over from New Zealand.
‘‘We’ll be driving around in a big truck, with a big generator, getting rid of that water because it’s a huge Dengue hazard,’’ he said.
Tonga’s Ministry of Health, with support from the World Health Organisation, were gearing up for possible dengue outbreaks, said Doctor Chip Gresham.
Part of New Zealand’s medical assist team, Gresham arrived in Tonga on the first flight out of Auckland after the cyclone.
He said the ministry was working to get more stocks of Dengue Fever treatment into the country.
An outbreak had already been declared in January after a 12-year-old girl from New Zealand died of the viral disease while visiting family in Tonga over the Christmas holidays.
The cyclone had also increased risks of gastro-intestinal problems, due to limited clean drinking water, and ‘‘construction siteassociated injuries’’, said Gresham.
The island was strewn with sheets of iron, rough planks, and exposed nails blown off houses by the cyclone.
Three serious injuries were reported – but one of those was a coincidence.
‘‘That was a chronically ill person who suffered a medical injury that could have happened with or without the cyclone,’’ he said.
One elderly person died of a heart attack during the cyclone.
Gresham said Tonga’s main hospital and health clinics were fully functioning.