Pacific / American Samoa

Dengue contained on American Samoa

12:14 pm on 14 November 2018

An epidemiologist at American Samoa's Department of Health says he's confident the latest dengue outbreak is coming to an end.

Photo: lamyai/123RF

Dr Aifili Tufa said the outbreak began in March 2017, reaching its peak around the end of that year and there have been no new confirmed cases for the past six weeks.

Dr Tufa said over the 18 month period there have been 1009 confirmed cases of dengue serotype 2, with 761 people receiving brief hospital treatment for the illness such as intravenous fluids.

He is concerned previous reports of higher numbers of suspected cases over a shorter time period are misleading.

He said the government's mosquito containment measures have been effective and is confident the outbreak is nearly over.

"As far as the outbreak here, it peaked about December 2017 to January 2018 and then we've seen a downward trend since that point on. And for the entire month of October we have not seen any more positive cases."

Dr Tufa said there have been no deaths in the territory and most people recover well from the illness which is a milder serotype than the one seen elsewhere.