As of Wednesday, Hawaii has not accrued any locally acquired cases of dengue fever in 30 days, according to a report from Civil Beat.
While there is no standard timeframe for an outbreak to be declared over, this most recent milestone provides strong indication that the largest proliferation of dengue fever in Hawaii since the 1940s is now over. There have been more than 260 confirmed dengue cases since the beginning of the outbreak in February.
While Gov. David Ige praised the state's response to the outbreak, Department of Health Director Virginia Pressler, MD, warned of vulnerability to future outbreaks.
"It's critical for everyone to understand this is not the end...this is just the beginning of a new phase where we need to be prepared every day for a new mosquito-borne disease outbreak," said Dr. Pressler in a press conference, according to Civil Beat.
The potential mosquito-borne outbreak likely causing state health officials the most anxiety is the Zika virus. The state's emergency proclamation for both dengue and Zika remain in effect.
While Gov. Ige pledged that state mosquito control efforts would not subside, some citizens are skeptical of such promises.
According to the Beat, after an outbreak of dengue in 2001, lawmakers made plans to keep the mosquito population at bay, but within 10 years significant cuts to those efforts were made.
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