Transcript
The 12-year-old was visiting family in Tonga for the Christmas holidays, and was expected back in New Zealand for the start of the new school year.
Instead she came home to be buried.
Her uncle in New Zealand, Viliami Latu, says she was taken to hospital three times before the flu diagnosis changed.
"When they went back the third time, they were asked to stay in the hospital overnight. They did some blood tests and a few other things on that night but I think that they quickly found out it was dengue fever."
Mr Latu says she died four hours after being diagnosed.
A different uncle says another Tongan New Zealander has returned home to Auckland with dengue and another girl from Tonga was sent home to England after being diagnosed last month.
He says she collapsed while going through customs and immigration in London, bleeding from the nose and mouth.
Tonga's Health Ministry advises the number of people with the disease has reached 33 and will climb further.
Its chief executive Dr Siale 'Akau'ola says prior to the outbreak, there had only been sporadic cases of dengue brought in by others from around the region and the New Zealand girl was among the first confirmed local cases.
"There was no real general awareness that dengue was already in Tonga. We thought that it was a flu-like illness initially. The family did actually bring the kid to hospital, it's a very unfortunate oversight in my view. In hindsight I guess we are smarter now, all the cases of fever we are suspecting dengue."
Dengue shows severe flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache, muscular and joint pain, nausea, vomiting and swollen glands.
It can lead to dengue shock syndrome which results in bleeding, circulatory collapse and potentially death.
Dr 'Akau'ola says the main vector for the disease is a mosquito known for living and breeding near people's houses.
"Most of them would breed in the gutters of houses, water tanks or even rubbish that are lying about so one of the ways to prevent or reduce the breeding sites is a general clean-up."
Health authorities have kicked an eradication campaign into gear focusing on breeding grounds around Tongatapu.
Mosquito nets and insect repellent are being distributed, especially to homes with infected people so as to avoid insects biting them and spreading the disease to others.
New Zealand's Minister of Pacific People's Aupito William Sio says there's another contributing factor to the spread of dengue in the region.
"With climate change you'll find that scientists are now saying that the Pacific region has become really ripe for the breeding of mosquitoes that carry all these diseases as a result of warmer, wetter, hotter seasons."
Aupito is calling for greater regional awareness about the risk of dengue, saying public health authorities have lots of information available internally which needs to be more effectively communicated.
"I am keen to see information available to any traveller, made available at the airport because that is really the point where people need to be told - here is potentially what could happen in the Pacific, you need to take precautions - and I think that is still missing at this point."
Aupito says it's critical that regional governments work together on containing diseases, as Pacific people are a very mobile community that often call more than one country home.
The Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network says it's been notified of Tonga's dengue outbreak and has communicated this to governments and health authorities throughout the region.
New Zealand's health ministry is in the process of developing dengue warnings in the languages of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga for use in social media and online.
