Hawaii dengue outbreak grows by 3, ‘It’s probably not going to turn into a huge outbreak’: CDC

Three additional locally acquired dengue fever cases were reported in Hawaii County, bringing the total cases to 139.

This comes days after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) team visited Hawaii to check out the state’s response to the outbreak. And the Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH) got good marks from the team led by CDC Division of Vector-Borne Diseases Director Lyle Petersen.

“Our initial finding is that surveillance efforts are right on,” Petersen said. He also encouraged the continuation of the “Fight the Bite” campaign.

Petersen also noted that the state was far from being endemic for dengue fever. He said it would take hundreds of thousands of cases per year to qualify dengue as endemic to the island. The CDC chief noted that the dengue situation is “smoldering” and not “exploding”.

“It’s probably not going to turn into a huge outbreak”, he said.

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