Reports of dengue fever in Hawaii should not be overestimated and there is no need to cancel a vacation, health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stress the dengue fever outbreak on the Big Island is small compared to other parts of the world.
By the weekend the number of confirmed cases had grown to 88, including 13 tourists, the Hawaii state department of health reported.
"This isn’t a huge outbreak compared to elsewhere," said Dr. Lyle Petersen, CDC director, adding that up to 400 million cases of the virus are reported every year globally.
"Many, many more people are traveling internationally, thus the possibility of importing a disease like dengue to a place like Hawaii is obviously going up," Petersen told the Associated Press.
Dengue can only be contracted from a mosquito bite and not through human contact, and there have been no deaths from the current outbreak in Hawaii, said state Department of Health spokesperson Janice Okubo.
"To date, we have not seen an increase in cancellations due to dengue fever, and at this point, it is too early to determine if there has been any economic impact on our industry," said Hawaii Tourism Authority CEO George Szigeti.
