News

MOH scaling up Chikungunya monitoring

April 12, 2015 7:41 pm

The Health Ministry is scaling up its monitoring of the Chikungunya virus in the country.

The emergence of the first case last Month has sparked fears of a wide-spread outbreak – following its circulation around neighbouring Pacific Islands last year.

From last year to now, National Advisor Communicable Diseases Dr Mike Kama says the Ministry has sent 800 samples of Chikungunya to a lab in French Polynesia for testing.

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“That’s the concern from the Ministry. This disease rarely causes death. So, but the amount illness it can impose is quite high. We think about people not going to work and school. This is going to be a huge socio-economic problem for the country.”

Dr Kama says the fact that it took this long for a case to be confirmed for Fiji speaks volume of the preventative measures undertaken by the people.

This week, the Ministry will be sending about a hundred more samples to it’s reference lab for testing, to ensure that the disease is not circulating in the country.