Dengue in Fiji

Sheesh, I feel like the harbinger of doom and gloom these days. Now there's an outbreak of Dengue in Fiji - Pacific Islands Report

There's always Dengue in Fiji-it's NBFD.

Exactly! There is always Dengue in the whole region.

No need to 'doom and gloom', watsoff - what you say is something like 'there is influenza in Canada'. Or Mumps.
Dengue in Canada would be worth mentioning, but not in Fiji.

There's always dengue at a low level, often bought in via arrivals from other more dengue-prone countries. The current situation is a rapid rise in the number of cases, suggesting that the aedes mosquitoes are increasingly breeding locally.

"Outbreak" in this instance has a specific definition (particular number of confirmed cases in a month), and it's something that Fijians and visitors should be aware of and take precautions against.

As every "outbreak" can only be stated retrospectively the danger was already present before that. And we often had the situation that the outbreak warning was given at a time (in retrospective) when the number of cases was in fact declining again already.

So there is no reason to panic about dengue. It should not stop anyone from traveling to the South Pacific. But it should encourage very much to take appropriate measure against mosquitoes. At any time and anywhere, not only after an 'outbreak' or in particular countries with an 'outbreak'.

Here in Samoa dengue broke out again more than a month ago and I have still not met anyone or even heard of anyone who was actually infected. So do not think that everybody here is bedridden, the country on the verge of breaking down or whatever. 35 cases in one month in a population of 180,000 are an "outbreak" already but certainly nothing to worry about.

We are staying in Lautoka at the moment and I think we are up over a hundred cases in this city alone, the more serious 'dengue hemorrhagic fever' is much more rare, maybe 10 or so cases in total. Regular dengue will wreck part of your holiday, hemorrhagic fever will send you home, but you have to try really hard to die from it.

A few people we work with have come down with it and it is talked about in the office but its not a cause of any panic or anything. Wear repellant and avoid mangrove swamps at dusk (good advice generally) and you are safe. From what I understand the east coast (Suva) and the islands have no where near the same level of infection as Lautoka and the west coast of the mainland.

By way of an update: I hear the number of cases is up to nearly 1000 Fiji wide, 300+ in the western division (Lautoka and Nadi), the rest in the cenral division. Numbers are much lower in Suva and the east coast.

As mik_peta says: see today's Pacific Island Report [

Edited by: Watsoff

I blew it again: today's Pacific Island Report here

Edited by: Watsoff

We are now over 2000 cases in Fiji.

I just read this on today's Pacific Island Report; they are now calling it pandemic. I have also heard of a couple of cases in Solomon Islands, where Dengue is/was unknown (until now).

another update: I now have dengue

I wrote in another thread how safety isn't an issue over here and a couple of weeks later our house was robbed.

Alright, I know how to play this game.

If you visit fiji there is almost no chance someone will give you the deeds to an island. Especially not one with fresh water and a nice beach. Maybe close to a surfbreak, and with decent fishing nearby. Also a yacht.

Ok, lets see how that goes.

Hope you recover quickly mik, not a nice thing to have (I've been told by someone who's had both malaria and dengue that he much prefers malaria; not much of an option IMO).

Today's issue of Pacific Island Report has an article stating that New Caledonia is now screening all incoming international visitors - arriving from places like Fiji - for dengue. Must be getting quite bad.