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RP, Vietnam raise alarm on dengue cases

by DAVID DIZON, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 09/24/2008 7:45 PM

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The Philippines and Vietnam endorsed Wednesday a World Health Organization (WHO) strategic plan to combat dengue fever in the Asia-Pacific amid the rising number of outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease in the region.

Philippine Health Undersecretary Mario Villaverde said dengue is considered a "neglected disease" that has the potential for wider outbreaks in the region if critical measures are not done to prevent its continuous occurrence.

"The persistence of dengue outbreaks indicates a failure of a health system's performance. The Department of Health is strengthening its dengue control initiative through improvement of case management strategies and dengue vector management," Villaverde said in a WHO conference in Manila Wednesday.

The health undersecretary said Asia-Pacific countries must consolidate efforts to reduce dengue fever occurrence in the region. He said the UN agency must promote a culture of evidence-based decision making for dengue interventions as well as pursue initiatives in vaccine development.

He said governments should also present innovations in dengue control such as making affected households and communities participate in event-based surveillance.

In the Philippines, he said the DOH is improving dengue control service packages through better reporting mechanisms, strengthening social mobilization and communication strategies and intensifying outbreak response.

Useless insecticides

Dr. Nguyen Huy Nga, director general of the preventive medicine and environmental health administration of Vietnam's Ministry of Health, said dengue is a major public health problem in their country with over 55,000 cases and 100 deaths as a result of dengue every year.

Nga blamed improper use of water storage containers for the recent dengue outbreak that killed 50 people in the Mekong Delta region in the past eight months. He said use of insecticide sprays and chemical larvicides have had little impact on controlling the epidemic.

He said the Vietnamese government fully supports the WHO strategic plan that aims to reduce dengue deaths in the region by one percent through "new and improved diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic tools."

WHO said dengue has greatly expanded in the region over the last three decades owing to changes in weather patterns that expanded the habitat of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which carries the virus.

"Human practices such as rainwater harvesting and inappropriate disposal of used tyres, plastic containers and metal cans have created new opportunities for vector breeding."

Other key factors were migration, demographic changes, and rapid growth in urban areas.

Ninety-eight percent of all dengue cases -- and 99 percent of all dengue deaths -- in the region between 2001 and 2004 were accounted for by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, French Polynesia, Fiji, New Caledonia and China. -- With Agence France-Presse

as of 09/24/2008 7:45 PM