Armed with insecticide sprayers, Timorese volunteers from the Ministry of Health (MoH) cleaned up the streets, drains and other public areas to wipe out potential breeding sites for the mosquitoes that cause dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever. According to the MoH, a total of 11,536 houses in Dili have been sprayed during these prevention campaigns from February through April 2005. House to house spraying operations covered 29 villages in four high risk sub-districts and included intensive spraying in and around the hospitals. These activities were part of a national campaign to combat an outbreak of dengue fever that killed 39 people of the 1,062 cases reported since the beginning of this year. Twenty-three of the 39 deaths reported were attributed to children under five years of age. While the majority of the cases were in Dili, cases were also found in eight other districts of Timor-Leste.

The transmission period for dengue in Timor-Leste is the rainy season that takes place between November and May. Dengue fever is an acute flu-like fever caused by a virus transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that breed in stagnant water. It occurs in two-forms: dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Dengue fever is marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and pain in the muscles and joints. DHF is a more severe form, in which bleeding and sometimes shock occurs which can lead to death. The majority of the cases reported during this epidemic were attributed to the serotype of the dengue virus that causes DHF.

In early 2005, the government of Timor-Leste called for a national campaign entitled “oho susuk” (“kill larvae” in the national language, Tetum) to urge communities to keep their environments clean and to work together to prevent future recurrences of dengue. In response to this need, USAID/Timor-Leste provided small grants to the MoH totaling more than $70,000. Activities included training volunteers on vector control techniques, conducting community information campaigns about disease prevention, organizing community mobilization efforts to eliminate breeding sites, repair of spraying equipment and distributing dengue prevention educational materials during the spraying campaigns. As a result of this funding, USAID helped the MoH increase the use of effective interventions to reduce the threat of dengue throughout the country.