The Ministry of Health reported only 13 new cases last week — the fewest since the outbreak started in mid-October, and well below the 44 new cases confirmed the previous week.
Health Secretary Justina Langidrik on Friday thanked the US Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the governments of Taiwan, the United States and Australia for their support in helping to get control of the first known dengue fever outbreak in the Marshall Islands since 1989.
Aggressive action by several government agencies reduced the dengue-spreading mosquito population. Over the past three weeks most government facilities, churches and hundreds of private homes in Majuro have been sprayed with insecticide to eliminate mosquito-breeding areas. On Ebeye Island, more than 200 homes have been sprayed as government officials moved quickly in an effort to prevent spread of the fever to islands outside of Majuro.
Besides spraying, government crews screened nearly 2,000 open water catchment tanks and other water containers at homes around Majuro to cut back breeding areas for mosquitoes.
A total of 506 dengue cases have been laboratory confirmed in the Marshall Islands since mid-October, with only 18 of those outside of Majuro on four different islands.
