Alghadeer TV Alghadeer TV
A national dengue epidemic has been declared in the Philippines, where 622 people have died of the mosquito-borne disease since January and millions more are at risk.
From the start of the year to July 20, there have been more than 146,000 cases recorded — a 98% increase from the same time period last year, according to the country’s Department of Health.
Dengue causes flu-like symptoms, including piercing headaches, muscle, and joint pains, fever and full-body rashes. Of the millions of people infected every year worldwide, an estimated 500,000 develop severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, and of those some 12,500 people die, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Philippines had declared a national dengue alert just last month after reporting more than 450 deaths — but officials had said the dengue was “localized.”
With almost two hundred additional deaths in the past month, the crisis has now escalated to a national epidemic.
The epidemic was declared in order to enable government agencies to better identify at risk areas, said a health ministry statement.
“It is important that a national epidemic is declared in these areas to identify where a localized response is needed, and to enable the local government units to use their Quick Response Fund to address the epidemic situation,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque in the statement.
Epidemics have been declared in seven out of the country’s 17 regions: Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Bicol, Western Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Northern Mindanao. Together, these regions are home to more than 40 million people, about 40% of the Philippines population.
The Philippines became the first country in Asia to approve the use of the Dengvaxia vaccine, the world’s first and only licensed dengue vaccine made by French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pateur, in 2016.
The drug was distributed to more than 800,000 students as part of the school-based government immunization program but was suspended in 2017 after clinical trial data showed that it could have unintended consequences in non-infected patients.
