Big Island legislators want to bolster the state Department of Health Vector Control Branch to better focus on controlling populations of animals and insects that spread disease.
Big Island legislators want to bolster the state Department of Health Vector Control Branch to better focus on controlling populations of animals and insects that spread disease.
Throughout the past decade, state funding has been consistently drying up for vector control efforts, but Hawaii Island’s current outbreak of dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes, has highlighted the continued importance of Vector Control, explained state Sen. Josh Green, D-Kona.
“In light of our response to dengue on the Big Island, we absolutely need more support for vector control,” he said Tuesday. “We can’t afford another outbreak of dengue.”
Senate Bill 2240 and House Bill 2061 — which are supported by Green, state Sen. Russell Ruderman, D-Puna, state Rep. Mark Nakashima, D-Hamakua and state Rep. Joy San Buenaventura, D-Puna — would effectively re-establish the vector control branch, making an appropriation to hire four more officers to monitor populations of things such as mosquitoes and rats, and to respond accordingly when they present a threat, said Nakashima, who introduced the House bill.
“We’re creating more of a presence for Vector Control,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “At one point in time, there were three officers in Honokaa alone, and now I think we have that many in the rest of the state.”
Furloughs and other budget-cutting efforts have been “de-emphasizing Vector Control for the last decade because of budget challenges and other public health priorities,” Green said. “But it’s clear infectious disease is going to be one of our key challenges in the future. Statewide, Hawaii is going to be increasingly faced with huge challenges keeping infections at bay. … I don’t want to sound dramatic, but the wars of tomorrow are more likely going to be infectious diseases than between countries.”
The state’s initial response to the Big Island’s dengue outbreak was slow, he added, taking 40 days from the first case to the Department of Health activating its response, and that was in part because of Vector Control being given short shrift.
“In the modern age of communication and computer systems, and the ability to share information, we have to do much better than that,” Green said.
Nakashima agreed, saying that, while the state’s response to the dengue outbreak proved to be “adequate,” more needs to be done to not only fund positions but ensure the people in those positions are adequately trained.
“Even those who are in the positions we have now are not properly trained in all cases to do the job they were hired to do,” he said. “One of the things I’ve told the Department of Health, as well as other state offices, is that … there needs to be some institutional memory and training, so that when (an outbreak) does happen again — and it will happen — it’s not the first time all over again.”
Nakashima said no dollar figure had been officially attached to the bills yet, only that four positions are part of the proposal. Green, however, said he is asking for $500,000 to be appropriated right away to help with the continuing dengue outbreak.
Email Colin M. Stewart at cstewart@hawaiitribune-herald.com.