State lawmakers have agreed to boost funding for the Department of Health’s vector control branch as they try to take a more proactive approach to combating mosquito-borne diseases.
State lawmakers have agreed to boost funding for the Department of Health’s vector control branch as they try to take a more proactive approach to combating mosquito-borne diseases.
The $1.27 million approved by House and Senate leaders this week will add 20 new positions to the branch, tasked with monitoring populations of mosquitoes, rats and other disease vectors. The branch, hit hard by budget cuts following the 2009 recession, will have 45 employees once the positions are filled.
The funding boost comes as the state continues to deal with a dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island and the spread of the zika virus globally. Both are spread by the same mosquito.
But there is good news in the battle against dengue.
The onset of the last recorded illness was March 17, said DOH spokeswoman Anna Koethe.
As a result, the outbreak could be declared over as early as Wednesday if there are no new confirmed cases by then, she said. That would be 30 days, or three incubation periods, since the end of the infectious period for the last confirmed case.
DOH has been this close before, only to see another case crop up.
“I can tell you confidently that even though we will reach that 30-day milestone sometime next week, we are not going to be standing down our efforts for monitoring and surveillance,” Koethe said.
There have been 264 confirmed dengue fever cases on the island since September.
During that time period, there have been 16 imported dengue fever cases statewide, with two on the Big Island.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.