KAILUA-KONA — Free dengue testing for those who wouldn’t otherwise get help, a team that travels to do blood work, and better information for all?
That’s the gist of a request by two Big Island lawmakers, who say it just isn’t adequate to tell people to go to their doctors or the local fire department if they think they may have the disease. Naalehu Rep. Richard Creagan and Kona Sen. Josh Green are also calling on state health director Virginia Pressler to establish a dedicated dengue hotline, saying there are too many reasons for residents to not go and get tested.
Those folks — the uninsured and those on poor or modest wages living in poorly sealed, mosquito-infested homes — are falling through the cracks, said the lawmakers, both of them doctors, in a letter this week to Pressler.
The pair called for a mobile team of health care specialists to go out to homes and collect blood samples and do basic assessments.
“We need the Department of Health to get deep into the community,” Green said. “They could contract with clinical labs and use the mobile van that the Legislature funded. They just need the will to do it.”
The number of cases of dengue rose to 38 on Friday. The tally of infected visitors has remained steady at eight cases, and the latest onset of illness remained at Nov. 2.
State epidemiologist Sarah Park said the state lab has been working hard to provide a large number of tests, but that it isn’t the role of the DOH to go out and draw blood and do testing itself.
“We facilitate access to health care, but don’t provide it ourselves,” Park said. “We’re better off leaving that to the health care providers.”
Patients should be thoroughly examined not just for dengue, but other diseases like leptospirosis, which presents similar symptoms, Park said. In the fervor over dengue, other possible causes of a disease could be ignored, Park cautioned.
Civil Defense Chief Darryl Oliveira said emergency services were made available at fire stations in an effort to offer some access to those who feel they have no other means to get into the system. EMS will do a patient assessment, transport if necessary, and report results to the Department of Health, Oliveira said. But EMS is not drawing blood for testing.
Sending people to the local fire station is inefficient and ineffective, the state lawmakers said. The DOH has many personnel who could be equipped to interview, assess and test, Green said.
“Simply telling people to go to their doctor will not completely solve the problem,” the letter reads. “Many do not have doctors, or are being given appointments a week or more out … Many in the community are afraid of the costs of seeking and receiving medical care and what they really need is to have their blood drawn and tested for dengue.”
In too many cases, coffee pickers, many of them Latinos and Micronesians, will feel they cannot stop working and won’t want to draw attention to themselves, said Lorrin Pang, Maui’s public health officer. Lacking cheap, proper access to health care, they may shuck off the symptoms and keep working.
These workers are visiting many fields, and having no insect repellent available for purchase on the island, they are constantly moving and exposing themselves. Pang said Thursday that reaching these workers is top priority.
Those who think they have the disease are currently being urged to see their health care provider and to contact the DOH Disease Outbreak Control Division at 586-4586 if they are no longer experiencing symptoms.