Government spokesman Antari Elbon reported Friday that the number of dengue fever cases in Majuro, the capital, jumped from three last Friday to 60 this Friday. The first suspected case in the Marshall Islands’ second main urban center of Ebeye was reported Friday.
Many of those with dengue have been hospitalized, but there have been no fatalities. Dengue causes high fever, head and muscle aches, nausea, a skin rash and, in some, bleeding from the nose and gums. There is no treatment other than acetaminophen and rehydration.
The cabinet on Friday issued emergency regulations giving the Ministry of Health greater power to deal with the outbreak, and Health Secretary Justina Langidrik immediately urged people not to travel by ship or plane to remote outer islands to prevent transmission of the illness.
But efforts to control the spread of the mosquito-borne illness are complicated by a national election that is less than four weeks away, with candidates mounting campaign trips with increasing frequency to many islands. Boats and ships are departing to the outer islands on an almost daily basis as candidates charter vessels to get them and their campaign supplies to distant islands.
“The travel advisory issued today is to prevent dengue from spreading to the outer islands and Ebeye,” said Elbon on Friday. At this point, however, the travel advisory is not banning travel to other islands.
The emergency regulations called for “a nationwide mass campaign for general cleanup as the most effective preventive measure to control the outbreak of dengue fever.” The cabinet directed “all government agencies, businesses, non-government al organizations, local governments, communities, churches and families” mobilize to clean up trash and other mosquito breeding areas.
