KAILUA-KONA — Door-to-door dengue education outreach begins today in Kailua-Kona, the lone Hawaii Island area identified as a high-risk area for potential dengue transmission.
State Department of Health, Civil Defense, Community Emergency Response Teams, and community partners will be in the Kailua Village area to speak with residents, visitors and businesses about reducing exposure to dengue. That includes speaking with management at open-air restaurants to people in parking lots and everywhere in between.
The outreach, which will continue through at least Friday, is a proactive and preventative effort in the high-risk area for potential dengue transmission by the state Department of Health, Kanani Aton, with Civil Defense, and Ilihia Gionson, Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi’s executive assistant, told West Hawaii Today. The high-risk area extends from about Keauhou to Honokohau, according to the health department.
“It is a high risk area and the education and outreach will target the people that need to know,” Aton told West Hawaii Today on Tuesday. “It’s a really dense area so outreach like this makes sense.”
No new cases of dengue fever were identified Tuesday on the Big Island, health officials said. However, two of the 256 confirmed cases remain potentially infectious to mosquitoes, according to the state Department of Health. Of the confirmed cases, 232 are Hawaii Island residents and 24 are visitors; forty-six have been children.
State Epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park could not be reached as of press time for details on the case count and why Kailua-Kona remains a high-risk area for transmission.
The county has been performing such outreach since the start of the outbreak in September, however, the effort is ramping up this week in the wake of Kenoi declaring an emergency over the dengue fever outbreak on Feb. 8 and Gov. David Ige doing the same on Friday, said Aton and Gionson. Those taking part in the door-to-door outreach will be carrying identification, Aton and Gionson said.
“It’s continuing to do what we’ve been doing and that’s to encourage everybody to ‘Fight the Bite’ and reduce mosquito habitat and let us know if they can’t handle it,” Aton said.
They’ve also been working with various social service groups to ensure the homeless are aware of the outbreak.
“Understanding that’s one of the more challenging populations we have been engaged with,” Aton said.
Though the outreach is taking place only in Kona, Civil Defense urged the entire island community to be vigilant in preventing transmission of dengue fever.
For more information on dengue, call Aloha United Way at 211 or the Department of Health at 322-4880 in West Hawaii or 974-6001 in East Hawaii. To report mosquito hazards, call Hawaii County Civil Defense at 935-0031.
