The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

MINISTRY of Health officials yesterday confirmed there have been several incidents of dengue fever in New Providence since last year's outbreak, but said they were "sporadic" and "nothing out of the ordinary."

Deputy Chief medical Officer Delon Brennen said the numbers this year are no different from the years before.

His comments came after a young man contracted the disease last week. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he believes he got the disease while travelling to the Berry Islands and Andros last week.

However, Dr Brennen said there has never been any cases of dengue fever in any of those islands and the man most likely was bitten in New Providence.

"We have never gotten any reports from the Berry Islands or Andros. The few reports that came from the Family Islands were able to trace back to New Providence. We found that it was either people who lived in New Providence who just happened to show symptoms while on a Family Island or a resident who visited the capital and showed symptoms when they returned home but there was no local transmission," he said.

"The outbreak from last year is over. For the first four months of the year we haven't had more cases than usual. A case here or there but nothing that was a surprise to us. There have not been any cases that would be cause for an alarm."

There were 205 confirmed cases of dengue fever in 2011 and 7,200 suspected cases.

Confirmed cases were first reported in July, peaking in August when health officials reported an average of 100 new cases of suspected dengue fever a day, with patients predominately from the eastern and southeastern communities of New Providence, according to health statistics.

While Dr Brennen confirmed there were dengue fever related deaths, he could not release official numbers as the ministry is still waiting for autopsy reports.

Dengue fever is caused by four distinct, but closely related viruses. The disease causes severe flu-like illness and sometimes a potentially-lethal complication called dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Other symptoms include headache, muscle and joint pains and rash.

Bahamian health officials maintain that while there have been cases of bleeding symptoms among dengue fever patients, there have been no cases of dengue haemorrhagic fever.