Speed of American Samoa health systems questioned

Transcript

Questions are being asked as to why the health department in American Samoa didn't act earlier in trying to determine the cause of an acute fever rash disease.

There are suspicions the disease, which appears to be spreading in the territory, could be linked to the death of a 28 year old man.

The man died on Friday, and his blood samples, along with 23 others were sent off island for testing on Tuesday night, but it will take up to two weeks before results are known.

Our correspondent in American Samoa, Monica Miller, spoke with Leilani Momoisea about what's known about the disease so far.

MONICA MILLER: So far the Department of Health and LBJ have called it the acute fever rash disease and that is basically because of the symptoms that people who have been afflicted by this disease have shown - basically fever, body aches and also great spots or blisters on the body. So far they have just sent off blood samples for testing off-island so it will take a week or two before the results are received but so far the latest information we have had from the health department - they have counted about up to 100 people who have these symptoms so until the test results come back we won't know what exactly is causing this.

LEILANI MOMOISEA: But one person has died recently who is possibly linked to this?

MM:Yes. The officials that we have talked to say that the 28 year old man - they suspect more a dengue fever type disease but just to determine that this is what actually caused his death they have sent of the blood samples from the deceased off-island and testing will be done in Hawaii for dengue fever - we will get the results of that earlier than the other results for chikungunya, zika and ross river virus and these are done at the centre of disease control in Atlanta, so we really can't say but when he was taking to the hospital he had a very high fever and he was experiencing body aches and he had almost lost his appetite.

LM: Are things reaching panic levels yet with the public at all?

MM: I think people are just soaking in the information. They are aware and they are taking precautions
but i wouldn't say they are at a panic level. The average person is just thankful that the information is out there but there are also questions as to why the health department didn't act earlier to send samples off-island for testing because it has been almost two weeks now since they first noticed there was an unusual amount of people with the same symptoms so that is one of the questions that is being asked - why isn't the health department acting proactively rather than just waiting around?

Monica Miller says the Health Department suspects the disease is caused by mosquitos.

She says they are asking people to practice cleanliness around homes, get rid of possible breeding sites, and wear protective clothing and insect repellant.