THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	94
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

 

 

strongly urging the department of health to plan and address the need for a response team for vector-borne illnesses.

 

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii is an isolated island state with tropical climates of warm temperatures located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, making it geographically and climatically vulnerable as a breeding ground for vectors and creating favorable conditions for transmission of viruses and infectious diseases by infected Aedis aegypti mosquitoes; and

 

     WHEREAS, Aedis aegypti, also known as the yellow fever mosquito as it was responsible for the infamous yellow fever outbreak, was thought to be extinct in Hawaii in 1949 but was later found in traps at the Honolulu International Airport in 2012, and it is now most recently associated with the spread of dengue fever, chikungunya, and zika; and

 

     WHEREAS, dengue fever, first documented in the 1950s and recognized as one of the most common vector-borne diseases worldwide that causes explosive outbreaks through transmission between humans by a single bite from an infected Aedis aegypti, is an incurable disease without a vaccine, causing sudden-onset high fever; severe headache; muscle, bone, and joint pain; skin rash; possible organ dysfunction; severe gastrointestinal bleeding; and, in some cases, death; and

 

     WHEREAS, chikungunya, first discovered in Africa in 1952 and researched as a potential biological weapon, has recently reached nearly epidemic proportions in parts of Tahiti and is known as a crippling, incurable viral infection without a vaccine, causing sudden-onset high fever, headache, fatigue, severe to debilitating joint pain lasting several years, and digestive symptoms, including abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; and

 

     WHEREAS, zika was first discovered in Africa and noted by the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization in December 2015 as occurring within nine countries, with a recent ongoing outbreak in Brazil in April 2015, and active zika virus transmission in over thirty-five countries according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and

 

     WHEREAS, zika is an unpreventable disease with no vaccine that is spread by transmission of the zika virus by daytime active Aedis aegypti and possible sexual transmission between humans; and

 

     WHEREAS, symptoms of zika include headache, skin rash, fever, malaise, conjunctivitis, joint pain, and severe birth defects, particularly an increased risk of microcephaly, a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting fetuses of pregnant women that results in abnormal head size and incomplete brain development; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii is a tourist destination where thousands of visitors travel every year from countries of similar climates in similar geographic locales that have or are experiencing outbreaks or high incidence of the viruses transmitted by infected mosquitoes, such as French Polynesia, which has reported approximately 130,000 chikungunya cases, of which approximately half being reported in Tahiti; and

 

     WHEREAS, chikungunya has been found to lead to leptospirosis in some cases, which is a bacterial disease affecting humans and animals that is spread through contact with either urine or other bodily fluids of infected animals or with water, soil, or food contaminated with the urine of infected animals, creating a secondary public health concern; and

 

     WHEREAS, mosquitoes in Hawaii are under the administrative purview of the Vector Control Unit of the Department of Health, which in 2009 saw several positions eliminated, resulting in a reduction of approximately one-half of the Vector Control Unit's previous size, allotting only four workers for Oahu, two for Maui County, two for Hawaii County, and four for Kauai County, further leading to an inadequate number of workers in proportion to the population growth; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that the Department of Health is strongly urged to plan and address the need for a response team for vector-borne illnesses, such as dengue fever, chikungunya, and zika, in order to proactively and ably respond to the likely public health threat the illnesses pose; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Director of Health, and each member of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Vector-borne Illnesses; Response Team; Department of Health