The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

HEALTH officials said people knowingly or unknowingly infected with dengue fever during an outbreak in 2011 are at risk of serious illness if they get infected this year because of the type of virus confirmed to be in New Providence.

Officials reported 16 new dengue fever cases in New Providence yesterday and said they are on high alert for more.

There is also a suspected case in Abaco.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said three people have been hospitalised, one of whom is in the Intensive Care Unit of Princess Margaret Hospital.

Public Hospitals Authority managing director Dr Aubynette Rolle said hospitals in New Providence and Grand Bahama had identified spaces to care for patients affected by the virus.

Dengue fever, the viral illness, is spread through contact with the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

The mosquito is most active after dawn and before dusk. It lives and breeds in standing water.

The disease causes severe flu-like illness and sometimes a potentially lethal complication called dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Other symptoms include headache, muscle and joint pains and rash.

The country experienced a significant outbreak of the virus in 2011. There were 205 confirmed and 7,200 suspected cases.

“At that time, a significant number of the population were confirmed positive for serotype 1 and 2 presenting to our clinics and hospitals with mild symptoms of Dengue,” Dr Darville said yesterday. “Today, we have lab confirmation of a case with serotype 3, which is of concern. This means that if someone who has experienced Dengue Type 1 and 2 from the previous outbreak becomes infected with Type 3, they are at serious risk for severe illness and hospitalisation. With that being said, my ministry’s surveillance unit and the Department of Environmental Health Services are mapping out that location and safety protocols have already been activated.”

Currently, the dengue patients live predominately in the eastern and southeastern communities of New Providence.

“As minister stated in 2011, we had a significant outbreak of dengue in the country,” Chief Medical Officer Dr Pearl McMillan said.

“This means that many of our population would have been possibly ill, and because 40 to 80 per cent of persons who are bitten may not actually become ill, they may have actually had the virus. So, if they are bitten again and become ill with dengue, the likelihood of having the severe form, which was alluded to, and which we will talk a bit more about, is high. So, we need to look at how we decrease the likelihood of becoming ill at all and that means we need to protect ourselves from mosquito bites and we need to decrease the breeding sites.”