Lawmakers OK limited funds to fight dengue fever and Zika virus

House and Senate negotiators agreed Thursday to allocate $1.27 million to help combat dengue fever, the Zika virus and other disease threats — funding that would allow the state to hire 20 additional people for vector control and other tasks.

In February, Gov. David Ige asked lawmakers for almost $2.34 million, 33 new permanent positions and new vehicles to help the state cope with dengue and Zika, money that the governor said would restore the state Department of Health’s Vector Control Branch to the level of funding it had before layoffs and budget cuts were imposed in 2010.

Ige asked for the extra funding “to help to expand and enhance coverage for surveillance, investigation, assessment, abatement and public education throughout the state,” according to his Feb. 29 message to lawmakers.

Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said lawmakers only agreed to fund some of the new positions and vehicles that Ige requested, in part because the Vector Control Branch has not been able to fill all of the positions that it already has.

A prepared statement issued by the House said that before the dengue fever outbreak surfaced in October, the state had 25 vector control positions, but eight were vacant. With the 20 new positions that lawmakers included in the budget, there would be a total of 45 people in vector control when all of the positions are filled.

“This funding will help re-establish the Vector Control Branch, which has been reduced over the past few years by furloughs and budget cuts,” House Finance Chairwoman Sylvia Luke (D, Punchbowl-Pauoa-Nuuanu) said in a written statement. “In making these appropriations, the department will be able to add 20 new positions to monitor populations of vectors such as mosquitoes and rats, and to respond appropriately when a threat arises.”

Dengue and Zika are spread by mosquitoes.

There have been 261 confirmed cases of dengue on Hawaii island but no new cases for nearly four weeks, according to Hawaii County Civil Defense.

Tokuda said in a statement that infectious disease “will continue to be one of our key challenges in a world made smaller and more connected with modern-day air travel.”

“The state’s recent slow response to the dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island was a wake-up call for all of us,” said Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe). “We must be more vigilant in anticipating and responding to such outbreaks spread by mosquitoes and other vectors.”

Hawaii County Civil Defense officials say the dengue outlook is “favorable,” but Civil Defense and the Department of Health ask residents to continue to take precautions as part of the department’s “Fight the Bite” campaign.

“With everyone’s help and participation, this outbreak can be brought to an end,” according to a Civil Defense message posted Thursday.

Lawmakers also agreed to include an extra $162,354 in the state budget for physician salary increases to provide better access to medical services for prison and jail inmates being held by the state Department of Public Safety. Alleged shortcomings in medical care in the correctional system have triggered lawsuits that led to a number of recent settlements.

In one of those cases, the state has agreed to pay $4 million to a man who developed a severe infection while at Oahu Community Correctional Center that resulted in amputation of both of his legs below the knee, all of his fingers and most of his thumbs. That lawsuit accused the OCCC medical staff of failing to diagnose and treat the infection.

The state also agreed in another recent settlement to pay $625,000 in a case involving a Halawa Correctional Facility inmate who was found dead in his cell in 2012. That inmate had a long history of gout, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease.

According to the state attorney general’s staff, that prisoner went to the prison medical unit before his death but was sent back to his cell instead of to an emergency room.

The budget agreements announced Thursday emerged from House and Senate negotiations over House Bill 1700, which is the proposed new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Those negotiations are expected to continue into next week before the budget is finalized.