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Four more cases of dengue fever were reported by the state Department of Health on Friday as officials continued to search for clues that might help them knock out the Big Island outbreak.
The total number of cases is now 23 — all on Hawaii island. Of that total, 15 are residents and eight are visitors, officials said, with all but two of the affected individuals adults.
Cases have been reported in both East and West Hawaii.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said Friday that questions continue to frustrate health investigators, including the origin of the outbreak and the Big Island location of infected mosquitoes.
The eventual size of the outbreak also remains a mystery, she said, but it’s also possible the disease has run its course.
“It’s unclear if we still even have active mosquito transmission,” she said.
Although four new cases were announced Friday, they actually represent “old cases” that continue to surface while linking them to previous cases, Park said.
All 23 victims have either recovered or are recovering from the disease, with symptoms emerging between Sept. 15 and Oct. 30.
Park, who is attending a meeting in Denver, said this outbreak has been a difficult case to crack because the first patient experienced relatively mild symptoms and didn’t report the problem until later.
And, in fact, she said, the vast majority of the cases have reported mild to moderate symptoms.
“It’s pretty frustrating,” she said. “We’re like Sherlock Holmes, but the problem is people’s memories are not good. Five or six weeks later, can you remember where you were?”
At least one of the victims, a Florida woman, experienced some powerful symptoms, causing her to spend six days in the hospital last month after returning from a Big Island vacation. The ailment was diagnosed after hospital testing as dengue fever.
“I seriously thought I was going to die,” said Allie Wesenberg, who stars in an Internet video blog with her partner, Charles Trippy, who was also on the vacation but did not catch dengue.
Wesenberg and Trippy told the video camera that eight other travelers in their party contracted the disease. She speculated that she was bitten by infected mosquitoes “at the volcano” and “in the jungle” during an excursion that Trippy did not attend.
Park said it’s important that residents and health professionals statewide remain vigilant and to practice mosquito bite prevention, including turning over standing water and eliminating breeding sites.
Anyone who is experience denguelike symptoms — headache, rash, joint and muscle pain, pain behind the eyes — should see a doctor immediately, she said.
“We don’t want what’s happening on the Big Island to happen elsewhere,” she said.
Meanwhile a Kalama Valley resident was diagnosed with dengue fever this week after traveling to Southeast Asia, but that case is not related to the Big Island outbreak.
The Kalama Valley case is one of 14 dengue fever cases diagnosed in Hawaii this year and unrelated to the current outbreak, Park said.