Dengue cases in 11 regions exceed epidemic threshold —DOH

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Sunday said the number of dengue cases in 11 regions in the country have already exceeded the epidemic threshold.

“Yung mga matataas na lugar, siya nga pala, 'yung mga lumampas na sa epidemic threshold: CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Region 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 at BARMM,” Duque said in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB.

LIVE sa DZBB; @DOHgov Sec. Francisco Duque III kaugnay sa problema ng bansa sakit na dengue.

????: 594 kHz AM band
????: https://t.co/Jl7zdrja0g pic.twitter.com/y2m3y6PdXl

— DZBB Super Radyo (@dzbb) August 10, 2019

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), epidemic threshold is the critical number or density of susceptible hosts required for an epidemic to occur.

The epidemic threshold is used to confirm the emergence of an epidemic so as to step-up appropriate control measures.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health declared a national dengue epidemic due to the spike of the infection’s cases in the country with 146,062 cases which have been recorded from January to July 20.

Epidemic is the occurrence in a community or region of cases of an illness, specific health-related behavior, or other health-related events clearly in excess of normal expectancy, WHO said.

But just in a week, as of July 27, Duque said the dengue cases grew further with 167,607 cases.

“Mataas itong ng 96% doon sa 85,011 cases ng dengue noong 2018,” Duque added.

According to Duque, the dengue situation in other ASEAN countries like in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore are actually worse where the dengue cases skyrocketed triple times.

Duque said that every three to four years, a spike in dengue cases is expected according to WHO. However, the reason behind this phenomenon has not yet been established.

The Health secretary said rapid urbanization and climate change might be the possible causes of the phenomenon.

Duque said they are coordinating with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and local government units to execute measures that can prevent the spread of dengue-carrying mosquitos. —Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News