ZIKA HITS HAWAII Plus taking another look at the advisory

Posted on 02/18/2016 | About Hawaii

Hawaii Gov. David Ige declared a state of emergency to fight mosquito borne illnesses including dengue fever and the Zika virus. The state has been in the midst of a dengue fever outbreak on Hawaii's Big Island, where there were more than 250 confirmed cases.

There have been no locally transmitted cases of the Zika virus in Hawaii, Ige said in a news conference Friday. But there's concern that the islands could be at risk because mosquitoes that can carry dengue fever also can carry the Zika virus.“We are doing everything we can to be prepared, to be proactive, to prevent vector borne diseases here in Hawaii,” Ige said.The emergency proclamation could help the state acquire more money to control outbreaks.Hawaii is rushing to build up its mosquito control staff after a December report from the Centers for Disease Control highlighted deficiencies in the state's vector control department. The state slashed its mosquito control and entomology staff during the economic downturn, from 56 employees in 2009 to 25 positions in 2016. Health officials are now searching for funding to rebuild the staff, and the Department of Health plans to hire 10 new staffers with money the governor released, said Virginia Pressler, director of department, on Friday.Officials stressed that Hawaii is still a safe place to visit. No travel advisories have been issued about Hawaii, and tourism is off to a strong start in 2016, said George Szigeti, president and CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority.“There's no reason to be alarmed or to alter your travelling plans,” Szigeti said.There are active Zika outbreaks on Pacific Islands including American Samoa. Flights between American Samoa and Hawaii run several times per week.The proclamation also will give the state more power to take preventive measures, including the ability to spray pesticides regardless of a homeowner's wishes.“There are some who are holding out and not allowing us to be on their property,” Pressler said. “One of the things that this emergency declaration from the governor will allow us to do is that we can in fact enforce that we will come and take care of mosquitoes on a property that someone is refusing, because it is a public health emergency.”BACK TO THE TICO ADVISORYLast week we wrote about the concerns by travel agents and tour operators that they are the ones being made responsible for alerting customers to potential dangers even when none might exist.We questioned the directive under which TICO requires travel agents to be current on medical advisories, “a travel agent is obligated to inform customers of any safety concerns relating to their travel destination at the time of making the reservations.”It also reminded them that they, “may also have a continuing obligation to inform customers of a deteriorating situation in the travel destination after the travel services have been reserved.”TICO maintained their current directive was no different to others previously issued in medical crises.  That is true.  We have subsequently reviewed the bulletin issued during the Swine Flu epidemic and the wording is virtually the same.However, because it was done in the past doesn’t necessarily make it right or appropriate – either then or now.  We still thought if it came down to a “who said what” the onus was on the agent, so we sought the advice of Bill Clark of Clark & Company (yyzlaw.com) who has considerable expertise in aviation and travel law.Clark said he believed TICO’s responsibility in such a situation would be to issue “an advisory” to registrants strongly suggesting they review their compliance under the appropriate sections of the law and not a predetermination of the “duty of care” which should be determined by the courts.Such an advisory he said, would allow individual registrants to make their own determinations of their obligations under these sections, on a risk basis, rather than have TICO making a legal determination on behalf of the industry.Meanwhile tour operators and agents we spoke to, had various means of addressing the issue –ranging from verbal warnings, to including it in the terms and conditions, or checking off on a waiver.