Dengue worse than melamine contamination: DOH
by DAVID DIZON, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/08/2008 8:41 PM
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The Department of Health (DOH) on Wednesday warned that dengue hemorrhagic fever has claimed the lives of 280 Filipinos in the first eight months of the year.
In a press conference, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the death toll is lower than the 305 fatalities attributed to the illness during the same period last year. He said 28,488 dengue cases were recorded from January to August, which is 6.3 percent lower than the 30,406 cases recorded during the same period last year.
Metro Manila accounted for 30 percent of the recorded dengue cases this year followed by Central Luzon with 13 percent, Central Visayas (9.3%), CALABARZON (8.1%), Davao Region (6.2%) and Western Visayas (5.6%). CALABARZON stands for the southern Luzon provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon.
Duque said almost all the regions have recorded clusters of dengue cases during the first eight months of the year.
"We have to be careful about dengue incidence in the country because this is even more of a problem than melamine contamination of milk products," he said.
Last month, the Philippine government endorsed 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.
Neglected disease
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.
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.
