A total of 91 confirmed cases of leptospirosis were recorded in Fiji in the last week.
And the Ministry of Health and Medical Services also noted that 134 cases were reported since the last update a week ago, and 43 more cases recorded for previous weeks.
Ministry permanent secretary Dr James Fong said while a decreasing trend was noted in the last update, they were now seeing an upward trend in cases in the last week, driven by increasing lab positive cases from the Western Division.
In the Western Division, Dr Fong said there had been 617 cases, with 62 new cases in the last week, and eight more reported for previous weeks.
He said while the case trend was downward in the last update, numbers had increased again beyond the outbreak threshold in the Western Division in the last week.
And in the Central Division, there have been 556 cases, with 17 new cases in the last week and 30 more cases for previous weeks.
Dr Fong said case numbers had continued to decline below the outbreak threshold in the Central Division in the last week.
In the Northern Division, there have been 307 cases, with nine new cases in the last week.
He said case numbers had continued to decline below the outbreak threshold in the Northern Division in the last week, and was now at levels below the expected for this time of the year.
“In the Eastern Division, there have been 48 cases, with three new cases in the last week, and five more cases in previous weeks. Case numbers have continued to decline below the outbreak threshold in the last week,” the PS said.
For national leptospirosis hospital admissions so far this year, there have been 475 people admitted in total. There have been:
– 262 admissions in the West, with 28 new admissions last week;
– 149 admissions in Central with 12 admissions last week;
– 48 admissions in the Northern Division, with four new admissions in the last week; and
– 16 admissions in the Eastern Division, with one in the last week.
Dr Fong also reported two more deaths caused by leptospirosis – a 35-year-old female and a 23-year-old male from Nadi.
He said there had been a total of 31 deaths from leptospirosis this year, with 23 in the Western Division, three in the Central Division, and five in the North.
There have been 1528 lab-confirmed cases of leptospirosis this year.
