70 percent of people living in the Pacific are at risk of getting Dengue fever, as it is an urbanisation disease.
This is the revelation by the World Health Organization (WHO) as they work with the Health Ministry at putting together submissions for the Regional Strategic Planning Workshop in Vietnam next week.
WHO Representative Jennifer Musto said dengue is a regional threat and bringing it closer to home, she said that Fiji is one of the 10 Pacific countries that reported an outbreak last year, with over 300 cases reported.
According to the WHO, three of the main causes for Dengue fever are unplanned urbanisation, poor water storage and poor sanitary conditions that become ideal breeding ground for mosquito larvae.
Meanwhile, Health Permanent Secretary Dr Salanieta Saketa said that Fiji has been lucky so far with no fatalities recorded but this can change as the country looks at moving with time.
In 2008, Fiji recorded 1,895 Dengue cases with over 300 cases last year.
However, WHO has projected that the incidence rate for Dengue Fever cases in Fiji is 200 reported cases for every hundred thousandth person in the country.
Risk of getting Dengue high in Pacific
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