Re: Samoa: 2014 Suspected Chikungunya cases
Re: Samoa: 2014 Suspected Chikungunya cases
Chikungunya virus confirmed
Wednesday, 13 August 2014 00:00 Sophie
Health expects situation to get worse before it gets better noting 77 new suspected cases
OUTBREAK:
The Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri yesterday confirmed that the chikungunya virus is in Samoa.
The Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) yesterday confirmed Chickungunya as the virus that has been plaguing Samoa for the past few weeks.
During a press conference, Health?s Director General (D.G.), Leausa Dr. Take Naseri, said his department was bracing for an even bigger outbreak.
He said the situation is likely get worse before it will get better.
?I think we are building up to that level where we are going to see more cases,? he said. ?And we are hoping with what we are doing now, in trying to control and contain, we hope we are heading in the right direction to combat this so that we wont see many (more) cases.
?But like with any outbreak, we expect to see more cases now."
?And the fact that we are not immune to the virus so we are expecting more cases.?
Leausa said 96 people had so far presented with symptoms congruent with chikungunya.
?Gender-wise I think they are about the same number of females to males ? 52 females and 44 males (have presented),? he said.
?(With) age groups involved are usually the younger age groups.?
He said the first case presented to the health sector late last month.
?On the 24th that was the first suspicious case on the 24th of July,? he said.
?And slowly we are seeing at the beginning of August an increase in the number of cases (see graph below)."
?So we are bracing for an outbreak.?
He said the M.O.H. received confirmation that it was chikungunya last Saturday with lab results coming through from the 20 specimens that were sent off with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (S.P.C.).
?Of the 20 specimens we sent off island they came back eight of those specimens were positive for chikungunya and 12 were presumed negative,? he said.
?Now know this is chikungunya for definite. We now have a viral infectious outbreak in our country.?
Leausa said while 12 of the tests returned a negative result, he believes further testing beyond the Rapid Tests conducted by the S.P.C., which according to the World Health Organisation are used for preliminary for where screening test results are required, will yield more positives to be returned on the specimens.
He said the S.P.C. also tested for dengue fever, the zika virus and leptospirosis, all of which came back negative.
What this confirmation means however, is that the Acute Fever and Rash (A.F.R.) that people were being clinically diagnosed now has a laboratory confirmed causality ? the chikungunya virus.
Looking now to the two deaths that were reported by the Ministry recently, the D.G. said one was a 45-year-old male who was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (I.C.U.) at the national hospital, and the other was a 14-year-old female.
He said while the M.O.H. thought that the deaths could be related to current outbreak, he said the laboratory tests could link neither death directly to chikungunya, with the 45-year-old male suffering from other medical conditions.
?The 45-year-old?s test was negative (for chikungunya) and the 14-year-old?s was inconclusive,? he said. ?We cannot say for sure that the cause of (his) death is chikungunya due to the other pre conditions (he suffered)."
?With The 14-year-old we cannot link (her death) to the (test) results yet."
?So we are looking at it again. We expect the results of the further tests soon.?
More: Samoa Observer
