PAPE‘ETE, Tahiti (May 30, 2001 - Oceania Flash/SPC)---The Type 1 dengue fever epidemic that broke out in January has now caused one death.
An eight-year-old boy who contracted the disease was buried on Tuesday, the daily newspaper La Dépêche de Tahiti reports.
Narii Limik died last Saturday in Papara (southeastern coast of Tahiti island), after being admitted to the hospital. He complained of high fever.
Family, friends and schoolmates attended the funeral.
This week, local health authorities, the territorial health department and the research institute Malardé, established that the mosquito-borne epidemic now has affected 8,000 people.
Ninety percent of the clinical cases confirmed by blood analysis involve young people under 15 years of ago, statistics show, and at least 203 had to be admitted to the hospital for treatment.
The last epidemic of this magnitude in French Polynesia took place five years ago. It also claimed one victim, a 20...