The Philippine Red Cross considers dengue a national emergency after the Department of Health declared a national alert over rising infections, the organization’s chairman, Senator Richard Gordon, said Wednesday.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier noted an 86-percent increase in the number of dengue cases recorded from January to July.
Gordon said as a first step, the PRC will provide adequate safe blood, having sent 165 bags to five hospitals in Iloilo and four in Capiz. The blood is given free to dengue-stricken persons who cannot afford it.
A second step is to provide air-conditioned emergency medical tents to relieve hospitals that are overflowing with dengue patients.
He said tents were deployed in Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan. The PRC has done this before, the latest of which was during the measles epidemic earlier this year.
A third step is to involve the community with PRC chapters mobilizing 143 volunteers to track down dengue and conduct clean-up efforts within a 400-meter radius where cases are discovered.
“The Red Cross is treating it as a national emergency because one dead is already one dead too many,” Gordon said.
The dengue season has just started and more cases are expected. That’s why we are taking it very seriously,” Gordon said in a mix of English and Filipino.
The DOH said Wednesday that there have been more than 130,000 cases of dengue nationwide as of mid-July, almost twice the number from last year.
Former Health secretary and Rep. Janette Garin on Wednesday said she will resign as legislator should a new strain of the dengue virus be proved responsible for the lastest rise in cases.
At the same time, Garin, who is still facing a slew of criminal cases for the Dengvaxia mess during the Aquino administration, said the recent outbreak in the country could have been prevented by the use of the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
Garin also dared Duque to “be a man” and “exercise political will” in dealing with the dengue epidemic.
“If there are doctors and private patients who need the vaccine, give it to them, do not ban it from them, because it is not your family, your children or your life who’s at stake here,” Garin said at a news conference.
Garin said DOH officials must be able to present proof that will back up their claims that the dengue virus serotype 3 has caused the spike in dengue cases recently.
Also on Wednesday, Duque appointed Calabarzon Regional Health Director Eduardo Janairo as chairman of the National Dengvaxia Task Force to properly address and manage concerns surrounding the effects on the use of the Dengvaxia vaccine.
The DOH launched a Dengvaxia immunization program in 2016 and carried it out in three regions, including Region 7, on request by the region’s congressional representative. But the program created panic when its manufacturer announced that those who had had no contact with the dengue virus but were vaccinated with Dengvaxia could contract a more serious strain of it.
At the height of the Dengvaxia controversy, health authorities said a total of 833,000 Filipino children were found to have been administered the Dengvaxia vaccine in the regions.
“We need to keep track with the Dengvaxia vaccinees. We are conducting a series of physical examinations, monitor and strengthen their resistance and ensure their health because this is the only way to protect them from any illness or disease which could affect them,” Janairo said in Filipino. With PNA
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