There are signs that a dengue outbreak in New Caledonia is stabilising as authorities work to bring it under control.
Photo: 123RF
They declared a dengue epidemic in January and six people have died of the disease since then.
While there were more than 2000 cumulative cases of dengue in New Caledonia, Health and Social Affairs Directorate doctor Jean-Paul Grangeon said there were signs the outbreak was under control.
"Well for the last ten days I would say, to a fortnight the outbreak is quite stable the increase stopped. We are stable with the number of new cases and the number of severe cases which means we're not maybe at the end of the outbreak for sure of course, but for now it has not increased," said Mr Grangeon.
He said authorities had been put a range of measures in place including vector control around infected areas and distributing up to 1000 bottles of insect repellent a week to people in Noumea and remote areas of New Caledonia.
Mr Grangeon said while there were three types of dengue circulating at the moment, the outbreak has not been as bad as an outbreak that killed 19 people in 2003.