Dengue

Hi,

I noticed on this board that someone recently wrote there was a dengue outbreak on Raro. I checked the Center for Disease Control and the WHO sites, neither of which indicate that this is the case. As I am travelling with very young children, I'm trying to have this information right before departure. Is there somewhere else I should be looking for up to the minute outbreak information? Also will be visiting Samoa.

Many thanks.

I'd look up the local newspapers and see what they have to say, if anything. Be sure to bring your mosquito sprays or cremes, avoid being outside at dawn and dusk. You might even bring mosquito nets- they were very hard to come by during outbreaks in Micronesia, and cheap, easy to find at home, and very simple to pack. Dengue can be difficult but usually is only dangerous if you have already had one form of it (there are 3 I believe) and you get a second. Then it can be very serious indeed. But I suspect someone more knowledgable about Raro and Samoa specifically can offer more advise.

Hi

We were in Raro April/May this year and there was quite a serious outbreak - from memory nearly 1,000 cases since the beginning of the year.

Have watched the local papers on line every week since then and there has been little mention recently except a month or so back to say it was decreasing. I would expect this at they are now in their winter (tho much warmer than Auckland LOL).

The dengue mozzie is the daytime one, with dawn and dusk being the time you're most likely to get bitten. The night time ones are a nuisance but don't carry the disease.

The mozzies tend to be worse inland, so if you're staying on the coast they won't be as bad. Take plenty of repellant with you and buy coils there (very cheap) for burning outside.

If there is still an outbreak you'll be given a notice at the airport, but I honestly think it's not too bad now. However, do take precautions. The trouble is that because they depend on tourism they don't like too much publicity which could put off tourists!

Any other questions, please ask.

I visited the Cook Islands in May/June this year.
The dengue cases at that time were concentrated to Rarotonga with only occasional case on the outer islands. For example, a tourist on Aitutaki was diagnosed with dengue the day after arriving from Raro, so she was infected on Raro.
The mozzie activity was MUCH lower than last time I visited (December 2007) thanks to the cooler weather, so the risk of getting infected is much lower than it was during the warmer weather a couple of months ago.
I think I got one or two daytime mozzie bites during my three weeks on the islands, so the risk of catching dengue is pretty small as long as you use good repellant. (Don't use the eucalyptus oil kind. I learned last time that it ATTRACTS Raro mozzies...)