The Philippines has the highest dengue fatality rate in all of Asia with 720 deaths recorded from Jan. 1 to July 27, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said Wednesday.
The 167,607 dengue cases reported during the same period was 98 percent more than the same period last year, he said.
Duque attributed the spike in dengue cases to the “late response” to the mosquito-borne disease.
Duque led the clean-up drive inside the DOH compound in Sta. Cruz, Manila, Wednesday.
With still no cure for dengue, Duque said the best thing people we can do is to clean their surroundings and eliminate all mosquito breeding sites in their homes such as water in vases, tires, and the water drain in the back of refrigerators.
On Tuesday, the North Cotabato Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council passed a resolution urging the provincial board to declare state of calamity in the province due to dengue.
Gov. Nancy Catamco, concurrent PDRRMC chairman said dengue cases in the province have already reached an “epidemic threshold” with 16 deaths from Jan. 1 to Aug. 12 this year.
The dengue fatality figure is 221 percent higher compared with the same period last year.
Despite massive government drive against dengue-carrying mosquitoes, many communities in the province are still plagued by dengue, the governor said.
“This is a matter of life and death. From now on, no Cotabateño should die of dengue, we are acting quickly,” Catamco assured the public, in a statement issued after the PDRRMC meeting at the provincial capital.
The resolution was unanimously approved in Tuesday’s meeting and was forwarded to the Sangguniang Panlungsod, chaired by Vice Governor Emmylou Mendoza.
Once the province is placed under state of calamity, the provincial government may use 5-percent of its annual budget to fund anti-dengue activities. With PNA
READ: MM, Ilocos near dengue epidemic scale, DOH says
