With the start of the rainy season comes the threat of dengue-carrying mosquitos. In fact, June is actually National Dengue Awareness Month made official by former President Fidel V. Ramos through the signing of Proclamation No. 1204 on April 21, 1998. But that doesn’t mean that dengue cases are concentrated during the wet months.
READ: 4 ways you can avoid dengue this rainy season
According to the latest statistics from the Department of Health (DOH), the number of reported dengue cases from Jan. 1 to Jun. 29 totaled 106,630, an 85 percent increase from the 57,564 cases reported over the same period last year.
This increase prompted the health department to declare national dengue alert today.
“We want to raise awareness among the public and more importantly, in communities where signs of early dengue increases are evident,” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said.
But Duque clarified that there is no national epidemic, only regional with the Western Visayas (13,164), Calabarzon (11,474), Central Visayas (9,199), Soccsksargen (9,107), and Northern Mindanao (8,739) having the most number of reported cases.
The DOH also pointed out that schools remain to be a hotbed for the viral illness caused by female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and urged local public school institutions to take precautionary measures like putting up screens on windows as proposed by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.
According to Recto, as early as 2015, there have been plans by the DOH in partnership with The Department of Education to install screens in 20,000 classrooms and to add 7,620 classrooms which were already installed with chemically-treated screens. DepEd currently maintains 757,006 rooms nationwide.
Header image courtesy of Inquirer
Get more stories like this by subscribing to our weekly newsletter here.
Read more:
Don’t go ‘WILD’ this rainy season
Non-FDA approved mosquito coils are still being sold in markets
What you need to know about the newly-signed Universal Health Care Law