QUEENSLAND Health has admitted its dengue fever control program has failed the Far North this year and vowed to overhaul its response plan.

As the dengue fever summit in Cairns drew to a close yesterday, experts unveiled the final touches to an amended response plan after being caught out by a protocol "that didn’t work".

Dengue symptoms and prevention

Queensland Health’s medical entomologist Dr Scott Ritchie said the department’s dengue fever management plan was ill-equipped for this year’s outbreak, with reported cases swelling to 896.

"We had a plan in place and we did implement the plan, I will say there were aspects of the plan that didn’t work," he said. "Our goal is to eradicate and eliminate the virus …we’ve done that successfully 23 times."

Dr Ritchie said the new prevention plan would prepare the department for future high-spreading outbreaks.

The new system will combine mosquito data, case data and environment data to create a mapping system that identifies and targets dengue-vulnerable areas before the virus hits.

"It’s to better predict where another outbreak is likely to spread, prioritise the area for control rather than just willy nilly doing it," he said. "It’s a quick way of pulling all that stuff together to help guide our control system."

Atlanta’s Emory University department of environment studies chairman Uriel Kitron said the new system used case statistics to pre-empt potential outbreak areas.

"Using some statistical tools and some modelling techniques, you can actually ideally determine this is a really important case and really important premises," the US professor said.

"If I’m worried about this house in Cairns North, I’m going to send someone out there right away."

Dr Ritchie also said authorities would beef up surveillance and checks at households where the aegis aegypti mosquito had previously bred.

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