With 9,825 confirmed cases of dengue fever and eight deaths reported in the country so far, people have also been advised to avoid ibuprofen, aspirin or aspirin containing drugs.
One of the symptoms of dengue fever is body pains and according to Divisional Medical Officer Eastern, Dr. Eliki Nanovo, people tend to take pain killers such as Indomethacin and Ibuprofen when they get body pains.
However he stressed that during this dengue outbreak, these painkillers should be avoided.
“This is not the time for ibuprofen and indocid. We should avoid these painkillers. The body pain is because of the cause of the disease and the only painkiller that we advise for now is paracetmol that can help in the fever also. Any other pains or fever in between your dose of six hours should come with a cold sponging and other things. Ibuprofen and indocid which is common to us in Fiji should be avoided at this stage because of the side effects of it which causes bleeding and compensates the cause of disease because it causes bleeding as well."
The highest number of dengue fever cases has been recorded in the Central Division.
Six cases of deaths were reported in the Central Division, one in the Western Division and one death in the Northern Division.
The youngest victim was a two month old baby while the oldest person who died due to dengue was over 70 years of age.
Meanwhile the nationwide cleanup campaign launched yesterday in an effort to control the outbreak will continue in parts of the country next Saturday.
Story by: Praneeta Prakash
