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Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands: Dengue outbreak DREF Final Report (MDRSB005)

Attachments

This final report provides an overview of the progress made throughout the operation which concluded on 28 February 2017. An allocation of CHF 78,771 was made from the IFRC Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) on 1 November 2016 to support the Solomon Islands Red Cross Society in delivering immediate humanitarian assistance, of which CHF 70,106 has been utilized. The balance of CHF 8,665 will be returned to DREF.
On behalf of the Solomon Islands Red Cross, IFRC would like to thank the Canadian Red Cross/Canadian government for the generous contribution to the replenishment of this DREF.

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

From August 2016, an unusual increase in dengue-like illness, including the number of confirmed Dengue cases, was observed through the National Syndromic Surveillance System of the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) in the Solomon Islands. An outbreak of dengue was declared by the Solomon Islands Government for Honiara city and the Guadalcanal province on 8 October 2016 and surveillance of dengue cases was increased by the Honiara City Council, other private practitioners and in the Guadalcanal province. This was expanded to include Gizo township (Western province) and the Auki township (Malaita province) on 19 October 2016.
Between 15 August and 16 October 2016, a total of 1,212 suspected dengue cases were reported in Guadalcanal (including Honiara), Malaita and Isabel provinces (798 additional cases were reported in situation report #3 of the MHMS for the week of 10-16 October 2016) and at least three dengue-like illness cases reported for Gizo City in the Western Province.
In situation report #26 issued by the MHMS for week 121 , 2017 of the Dengue outbreak, the MHMS advised that a total of 12,030 line-listed cases of suspected dengue had been reported across all 10 provinces of the Solomon Islands since week 332 , 2016, and that 96% of the cases had been reported from the Honiara and Guadalcanal provinces. To date, a total of 3,360 rapid diagnostic tests have been conducted. Of these, 1,455 (44%) were positive for Dengue. Dengue virus serotype 2 (DENV2) was also detected in 35 out of 51 samples that were sent to the New Zealand Institute of Environmental Science and Research Limited (ESR) in December 2016.
The MHMS further reported a total 824 hospitalizations since week 33, 2016 within which 62% of the admitted cases were below 24 years of age. From October 2016 until January 2017, 15 deaths were associated with the outbreak, 60% of which were in persons aged 50 years or older. The MHMS advised a decrease in the weekly trend of reported dengue cases and that overall data indicated that the number of cases had decreased significantly indicating a possible slowing down of the outbreak.
The Ministry of Health Emergency Operation Committee (MHEOC) stood down its operation in mid-April 2017. This decision was based on the epidemiological trend, which showed a consistent decrease in the number of cases from February 2017. In addition, the current case load of dengue admissions to the National Referral Hospital (NRH) is manageable under routine operational capacity.