The state epidemiologist says the Big Island dengue outbreak, now poised to eclipse the 2001 Maui outbreak, is just getting started.

“We’re at the beginning of a marathon,” Dr. Sarah Park said Thursday. “We’re in the first mile.”

Park said such outbreaks “tend to go on for months.”

Thursday’s total of 79 confirmed cases is well past half the 122 cases in the 2001 outbreak, which had 92 cases on Maui, 26 on Oahu and four on Kauai. That lasted for eight months, Park said.

The breakdown of the 79 cases: 59 adults and 20 children; 68 residents and 11 visitors. The onset ranges from Sept. 11 to Nov. 12. The Health Department was initially notified Oct. 21 of a case of locally acquired dengue.

Gov. David Ige and Department of Health officials held a news conference Thursday, a day after the department released a new map showing a section of Kau from South Point to Naalehu is now a high-risk area for dengue.

The area of South Kona, which had already been identified as a hot spot for exposure, was extended north on the new map to the area of Kalaoa, where Kona Airport is located.

The map also showed Hilo and Puna as moderate-risk areas for the mosquito-borne infectious disease.

Areas indicated as high risk have a large number of cases and mosquitoes. The Health Department will update the map every Wednesday on its website.

The governor said the state is in weekly conversations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and has briefed the White House.

It is also redeploying and mobilizing its resources, transferring Health Department personnel from the other islands to the Big Island, as well as using National Guard and Navy personnel as needed, he said.

Ige emphasized the state is working to support the county and ensure it has the resources it needs, including Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira, who is the incident commander, and the mayor.

“We are applying the resources necessary to contain and manage the situation,” Ige said.

The state Laboratories Division has tested more than 200 specimens since late October, conducting roughly 20 to 30 tests a day. About four to seven cases a day test positive.

“We’re actively seeking acutely ill cases,” Park said. While it’s important to test those who have recovered, it’s not as important as the actively ill, she said.

“These are people who can tell us in terms of their memory as to where they’ve been in the past couple of weeks,” she said, and that will help find potential active transmission sites.

Park said she’s reached out to medical center chiefs for help with this.

The county is also using its Emergency Medical Services personnel to do outreach.

The confirmed cases have been “trickling in,” Park said. That trickle will continue “as long as we don’t reach all the people in the state, not just the Big Island, in terms of the Fight the Bite message.”

The CDC maintains it is vital to get the message out about mosquitoes, she said.

The Fight the Bite campaign urges people to take measures to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes and to get rid of potential mosquito breeding grounds, notably stagnant pools of water.

The state lab has the capacity to test 50 to 60 specimens, but state Laboratory Director Chris Whelen said that could increase sharply if necessary.

“We could triple that,” he said.

He said it takes two to three business days to test, but that does not include the time to send in the specimen, and the bottleneck is with logging in the results.

State Health Director Virginia Pressler said, “We do take this event on the Big Island seriously … and we share the concern of the community. … Not only do I have a concern as state director for the Department of Health, but I have a personal vested interest in this,” adding she has four siblings as well as nieces, nephews and other relatives living on the island.

With many residents traveling to and from the Big Island to be with family for Thanksgiving, the potential is there for transmission of the virus to other islands.

“That’s why the Fight the Bite campaign is important,” Park said. “It’s not just about the Big Island. We need to stop the cycle of transmission.”

Lynn Nakasone, Environmental Health Services Branch chief, said vector control staff from all islands as well as nonvector control Health Department personnel have been mobilized and are rotating through the Big Island to help assess mosquito populations on properties, look for standing water and provide education to residents.

She said vector control personnel will go to homes of possible cases of dengue. They will spray up to a 25-yard radius around their homes and assess up to a 200-yard radius. If necessary, they will spray two more times.

“Get rid of standing water,” Nakasone urged. “This weekend there will be a lot of rain.”

This weekend vector control crews will spray at 10 schools that are in the hot spots.

Although trapping of mosquitoes has just begun, the more effective of two transmitters of the virus, the Aedes aegypti mosquito, found only on the Big Island, has been found only on the west side so far, Nakasone said. Vector control personnel are refining their trapping, she said. The Aedes albopictus mosquito, which also transmits dengue, is found on all islands. Both transmit the virus.

Park said the Aedes aegypti female will bite up to three times before laying her eggs, whereas the Aedes albopictus female only has to bite once to get her blood meal before she can lay eggs.

The CDC branch in Puerto Rico should have results in two weeks of tests it is conducting on Hawaii specimens to determine where the strain of the virus from this outbreak originated.