21 Mar 2005

Typhoid remains a threat to some communities in Fiji

1:32 pm on 21 March 2005

The National Advisor for Communicable Diseasesin Fiji says although a recent outbreak has been contained, typhoid still poses a threat to some communities.

Dr Joe Koroivueta says as of last week there were 27 reported cases of typhoid in the northern, eastern and central divisions.

Dr Koroivueta says all the people affected have been treated and are making a recovery.

He says the Health Ministry has set up a taskforce to promote good hygenic practices in a bid to arrest the outbreak.

"We are on top of the outbreak but I don't feel comfortable that we are on top of the control of typhoid fever among sporadic settings, because we basically have two scenarios here, one is an outbreak and the other one is typhoid cases that occur sporadically."

Dr Koroivueta says living conditions in the affected regions have led to the outbreak and he believes the problem is a social welfare one as well as a health issue.