Guam Hazard Mitigation Plan - Western States Seismic Policy Council

SECTIONFIVERisk Assessmenthowever, some particular epidemics noted in Table 5-4. In 2006 there were two large outbreaksof food poisoning. The first included a number of students who ate lunch prepared by theirelementary school and the second affected a number of Japanese tourists who had eaten at anumber of regulated establishments. In 2007 there was a jump in the reported cases for bothinvasive strep disease and tuberculosis. 14 cases of invasive strep disease were reported in 2007,which is the highest number of cases seen since data collection for this condition was initiated in1993. In 2007 Guam also experienced the most new cases of tuberculosis reported since 1997,reaching a high of 92 reported cases. This represents a rate of 53 new cases of tuberculosis per100,000 population, which was 12 times the 2007 U.S. rate. 2007 also saw an extreme increasein the number of the reported influenza cases, at the time this was the highest number of reportedcases since 1996, 82.5 percent of which were reported during the months of September throughNovember. However, a second wave of “seasonal” influenza occurred in 2009, when 337 caseswere reported, marking a new high.The first case of brucellosis since 1991 was also reported in 2009. As shown in Table 5-4, manysmall outbreaks of diseases have occurred in that 10 year period. Many of these outbreaks areimported to Guam by temporary travelers who spread their infection on the island and leavewithout being detected. For instance, the 9 measles cases in 2002 were linked by the CDC to aJapanese tourist who had previously caused a measles outbreak in Palau. Also, in 1992 and 1993several cases of malaria and typhoid fever were brought to the island from other countries. Threecases of dengue fever were reported in Guam in a 3-week period during February 2008; twocases were contracted in the Philippines and one case was contracted in Bali, Indonesia.5-11