Ministry denies ‘Cika’ outbreak, says it’s limited to Suva

The Ministry of Health today announced that there is no outbreak of Conjunctivitis in the country and that it is only a surge.

Earlier:

• Conjunctivitis: Pharmacies face shortage of eyedrops
• 100 patients screened for conjunctivitis in Suva last week

In making the announcement today, the National Advisor for Communicable Diseases, Dr. Mike Kama said at this point in time it is limited to the Suva subdivision.

So national outbreak cannot be called at this point in time until it spreads out, so we are calling it a surge in numbers

Over the last 10-14 days, the ministry has registered over 1600 cases of viral conjunctivitis especially in the Suva subdivision

We are seeing 50 to 100 cases of conjunctivitis everyday for the last 14 days.

Dr. Kama added conjunctivitis isn’t new to Fiji, the ministry records 6000-7000 conjunctivitis cases every year, and the Suva subdivision records about 1600 to 2000 cases from those 6000-7000 cases every year.

We have reports in the Eastern Division also, about 100 cases in the last 14 days.

Dr. Kama said that viral conjunctivitis is a highly contagious disease, but can resolve on its own within 14 days to a month even if you don’t treat it.

The Ministry of Health is expected to release complete figures on the number of conjunctivitis cases by the end of this week.