“We are closely monitoring the dengue situation across the Pacific and stand ready to consider other requests for support.”
Young brothers among death toll
Other countries that have declared a dengue fever outbreak in the past few months are Tonga, the Cook Islands and Fiji.
Dengue fever, also known as break-bone fever, is a viral infection that spreads from mosquitoes to people and causes symptoms that include sudden high fever, intensely sore joints and muscles, pain behind the eyes and a rash.
The official death toll in Samoa stands at four, with a fifth death – a 2-year-old boy who died over the weekend – being deemed as a probable dengue-related death at this stage.
The boy is the youngest person to have lost their life over the past few months. His death came just a few days after his older brother, 9, succumbed to the same disease last week.
Their deaths follow that of a 5-year-old girl, whose death was declared by local health authorities on Monday last week.
The first death reported in Samoa was 12-year-old Misiafa Lene, who contracted the disease in April and died a week later, despite his family’s efforts to medically evacuate him to Starship children’s hospital in Auckland.
Speaking to the Herald at the time, his parents described the nightmare they were living.
“The pain is beyond anything. We don’t want another family to go through what we are going through.”
As of Sunday, a total of 5670 clinically diagnosed cases of dengue have been recorded since January. Of those, just over 2600 are laboratory-confirmed cases, according to the Samoan Government’s latest figures.
Last week, 1446 new clinically diagnosed cases were reported across Upolu and Savai’i – Samoa’s two main islands – and included 342 new lab-confirmed cases.
Samoa’s main hospital, near Apia, has had to make changes to its day-to-day operations to keep up with the surging cases of dengue fever among the community.
Those changes include revised operating hours for general outpatients, with only patients with dengue-like symptoms being attended to from 6pm until morning.
People with mild dengue-like symptoms, including fever, headache and joint pain without warning signs, are encouraged to stay home and manage symptoms with adequate hydration and paracetamol.
Travellers: Pack insect repellent
MFAT said it had not been approached for assistance by any New Zealanders in Samoa.
However, people due to travel to Samoa, particularly those with children, are being urged to heed safety messages.
People are advised to pack insect repellent, protective clothing and use mosquito nets when sleeping – especially for children, the elderly and pregnant women.
An influx of Samoan community members from overseas, particularly from New Zealand and Australia, is set to head to Samoa over the next few weeks before the country’s general elections this month.
Although the majority of the dengue fever cases and all of the dengue-related deaths have been children, elderly members of the public are also vulnerable to the mosquito-borne viral illness.
“Travellers to Samoa should always take precautions to protect themselves from mosquito bites,” MFAT authorities say.
“We encourage all travellers to follow the dengue fever prevention advice on our SafeTravel website and further information.”
Travellers to Samoa are also being encouraged to take out comprehensive travel insurance that includes medical evacuation in case of an emergency. People should also register their details on MFAT’s SafeTravel site.
Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald’s Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010 and won the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.