Health Secretary Francisco Duque led the kick-off ceremonies for the Region-wide Synchronized Dengue Clean-up Drive for Metro Manila.
READ: Metro nearing dengue epidemic scale—Health
He exhorted the public to practice daily the 4S Strategy: Search and destroy, Protect the self, Seek early consultation when symptomatic, and Support space-spraying in identified areas with clustering of cases.
Similar activities were held simultaneously across Metro Manila through the collaboration with 17 Local Government Units and the Departments of Education, Interior and Local Government, Science and Technology and the Commission on Higher Education.
Senate Health committee chairman Christopher Go asked hospitals nationwide to put up Dengue Express Lanes amid the dengue outbreak.
Go said he had already talked to hospital officials and management people to put up the dengue express lanes to give immediate medical attention to dengue patients following the declaration of a national dengue epidemic.
He said patients afflicted with the mosquito-borne disease should be quickly provided medical treatment to ensure their safety.
READ: PH dengue fatalities highest in Asia
He raised concern over the increasing number of dengue cases that has spiked to 98 percent from January to July 20 compared with the same period last year.
Health officials have warned that if the public will be lax in fighting the dengue-carrying mosquitoes by eliminating their breeding grounds, the 10,000-weekly increase in dengue cases will continue and reach its peak in October.
Sought for his comment on lifting the ban on the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, Go said the anti-dengue vaccine must be administered first to FDA officials and experts.
“You have to show the public that this is safe… to remove fears of Filipinos to the vaccine,” Go said during the inauguration of the 40th Malasakit Center at the newly opened Valenzuela City Emergency Hospital.
In response to the National Dengue Epidemic, the LGUs conducted regular community and school clean-up drives and implemented vector control measures such as the installation of ovitraps and insecticide treated screens in public elementary schools, space spraying and Targeted Outdoor Residual Spraying in dengue hot spots.
Furthermore, collaboration with the DOST-Philippine Council for Research and Development and the UP Manila College of Public Health have allowed the use of enhanced ovitraps (L-Traps) that trap adult female mosquitoes.
These ovitraps contain insecticide growth regulators that kill larvae and inhibit larval development.
Based on the latest Dengue Surveillance Report of the DOH Metro Manila Center for Health Development, the National Capital Region exceeded the alert threshold by July 27, 2019 (Morbidity Week 30) with 856 cases reported in that week, higher than the 81 cases reported in the same week last year.
