Pacific network mobilised to help control Solomon Islands dengue outbreak

Experts mobilised by the Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network (PPHSN) are helping the Solomon Islands Ministry of Health and Medical Services Dengue Taskforce with the surveillance, analysis and control of the current dengue type 3 outbreak.
The outbreak started at the beginning of January in Honiara and continues to spread, with more cases detected every week. As at 10 April, 2,505 suspected cases (including 659 confirmed by diagnostic laboratories) have been reported since the beginning of the outbreak. Around ten per cent of the cases were hospitalised and three were fatal.
Most of the cases (90 %) are concentrated in Honiara, but the disease is also increasingly reported in the Western, Temotu, Guadalcanal and Malaita Provinces. The exact number of cases in these provinces is yet to be confirmed.
A team of experts (epidemiologists) was rapidly convened by the three permanent members of the PPHSN Coordinating Body – SPC (the network’s designated focal point), the World Health Organization and the Fiji National University/College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences – following a request for support from Solomon Islands Dengue Taskforce.
So far, three epidemiologists have supported the National Taskforce in Honiara, with a fourth to arrive soon.
The dengue type 3 virus (DENV-3) responsible for this outbreak has never been reported in Solomon Islands previously, and it has not been circulating in the Pacific Island region for more than 15 years, according to information given to PPHSN. It could, therefore, cause major outbreaks in other Pacific Island countries and territories.
In fact, cases of DENV-3 have been reported recently in French Polynesia, together with DENV-1, which has also been confirmed to circulate in other Pacific Island countries and territories (New Caledonia, Fiji and Wallis and Futuna).
All PPHSN members are being kept up to date with the situation, and the network is prepared to send additional support to Solomon Islands should they request it.
For more information, please contact Christelle Lepers, Surveillance Information and Communication Officer at SPC, on behalf of the PPHSN Coordinating Body Focal Point (Email: christellel@spc.int – Tél. (687) 26 01 81).