RAROTONGA – Cook Islands health officials are waiting for results of 44 cases of people presenting dengue like symptoms, in the country’s first outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in five years.
The Health Protection manager, Tata Vaeau, said there were already eight confirmed cases and they had sent blood samples to French Polynesia to verify what type of dengue strain appeared.
Mr Vaeau said it was an introduced outbreak, brought back to Rarotonga by people who visited French Polynesia.
He said people should go to the doctor immediately if they felt sick and health officials were erring on the side of caution.
“For the time-being we are considering all these 44 cases as positive cases because we are front-line, we are the response team. I consider all of these confirmed cases until the blood results are confirmed or announced.”
Mr Vaeau said they hoped the first batch of results from French Polynesia would arrive by the end of this week.
