People don’t listen, P.M. says about dengue fever

16 January 2018, 12:00AM

Prime minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi has admonished the Samoan public for being lax in heeding warnings from the Ministry of Health on the dengue fever outbreak.

On Thursday, Tuilaepa told Radio 2AP that there had been a strong educational campaign by the ministry on prevention but people did not seem to be listening.

“They don’t listen and take action on these prevention issues but when they get sick they start complaining, but the Ministry is doing it’s job,” he said.

The Prime Minster called on village based women’s health committees to work more diligently in ridding the country of dengue through clean up campaigns.

He also challenged village mayors to be in the forefront of the effort.

“The village mayors and government representatives should take the lead and if people are not cleaning up, then they should do this themselves,” urged Tuilaepa.

Last week, the Ministry of Health confirmed five deaths related to dengue as of 31 December 2017.  

Dengue fever was declared an outbreak by the Ministry of Health in the last week of October 2017.  

Over the past five months, a total of 2,446 Dengue related cases - both clinical and confirmed dengue Serotype 2 have been recorded, according to the Ministry.

16 January 2018, 12:00AM
Samoa Observer

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