While the number of Covid-19 cases on Guam continues to go up, the government has not reported any new dengue cases in four months.
The Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPHSS) has not received any laboratory confirmed cases of dengue fever in more than four months. The last two local sporadic cases of dengue fever occurred more than a month apart in January and February.
There were a total of 22 cases in 2019 (13 locally acquired and nine imported cases), including cases from the September 2019 outbreak.
DPHSS will declare another dengue outbreak when the number of locally acquired confirmed cases is three (3) or more in a two-week period.
The public is urged to continue prevention efforts and clean up trash, water containers and other mosquito breeding areas to protect themselves. This is particularly important with the rainy season.
Dengue is a disease caused by a virus spread through mosquito bites. The disease can take up to 2 weeks to develop with illness generally lasting less than a week.
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Health effects from dengue include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rash, muscle and joint pain, and minor bleeding.
Dengue can become severe within a few hours. Severe dengue is a medical emergency, usually requiring hospitalization.In severe cases, health effects can include hemorrhage (uncontrolled bleeding), shock (seriously low blood pressure), organ failure and death.
According to World Health Organization, dengue is still an ongoing risk in many parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands.
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In Republic of the Marshall Islands, there have been 3,446 dengue-like-illness cases of which 1,606 have been laboratory confirmed by the Republic of the Marshall Islands between May 2019 and June 2020. Two deaths were reported since June 2019.
In Federated States of Micronesia, a total of 36 new DLI cases were seen during epi weeks 20-23 bringing the total number of DLI cases to 1,661 since January 1, 2019.
Cook Islands had 352 cass from from January 2019 to June 16, 2020.
