The Department of Health identified eight new cases of locally acquired dengue fever on Wednesday, bringing the total to 190.

Four people are potentially infectious, becoming symptomatic from Dec. 21 to Dec. 26, the Health Department said.

Humans carry the disease and in Hawaii it is transmitted by two types of mosquitoes, the Aedes aegypti and the Aedes albopictus.

A swarm of Aedes aegypti, the more efficient transmitter of the virus, was found last week on Hawaii island in Milolii, where many residents have contracted dengue.

Milolii and South Kona (including Captain Cook, Hookena and Honaunau) are two high-risk areas for dengue fever.

Of the 190, 18 are visitors and 37 are children.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Robotic updates are slated for oldest telescope on Mauna Kea

HILO >> The oldest observatory on Mauna Kea is set to get a makeover in 2016 that will allow the nearly 46-year-old facility to operate largely on its own.

Guenther Hasinger, director of the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy, said the university plans to begin a $6 million renovation of its 2.2-meter telescope. He said the finished product, a “modern robotic telescope,” will be able toopen and close its dome automatically and make preprogrammed scans of the night sky, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.

The project will be supported by $2.5 million in state funds and $500,000 in contributions, Hasinger said.

Funding from the state Legislature also included $450,000 for UH-Hilo to replace its broken Hoku Kea teaching telescope. The telescope was one of three selected for early decommissioning.

Gov. David Ige had called for a quarter of telescopes on the summit to be removed to make way for the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope.

The other two telescopes earmarked for decommissioning are the UKIRT, formerly known as the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope, and the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, which stopped operations in 2014.

Hasinger said the UKIRT is the second most scientifically productive telescope in the world, behind the Keck telescopes.

“That one is hurting us the most,” Hasinger said, regarding its removal.

Hasinger said the UKIRT could operate for up to eight more years prior to the TMT’s completion, assuming the $1.4 billion observatory regains its land use permit. The state Supreme Court invalidated the project’s permit to build on thevolcano Dec. 2.