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By Ruben D. Manahan 4th, Reporter
The Department of Health said Monday that dengue
cases nationwide increased by 35.6 percent during the first five
months of 2008 compared to the same period last year.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said in the
weekly Kapihan sa Manila that a total of 10,841 dengue cases were
admitted to different hospitals nationwide during the said period,
compared to 7,992 last year of the same period.
The National Epidemiology Center also tallied a
total of 114 deaths from dengue compared to last year’s 90.
He added that with the current pattern, there is
a possibility that the total number of dengue cases this year might
surpass that of 2007.
“Since 2005, there has been an uptrend in
dengue cases. In the past, we experienced a peak in dengue cases
every three years,” Duque said in Filipino.
Duque also said that the rising number of dengue
cases is also caused by global warming and rapid urbanization, and
other tropical countries like Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and
Indonesia also experienced an uptrend.
Statistics from the epidemiology center showed
Metro Manila or the National Capital Region (NCR) still had the most
number of dengue cases in the country with 2,839 cases compared to
1,429 last year. Metro Manila also had the most number of dengue
deaths with 16.
Out of the 2,839 cases in NCR, Manila had the
most number of cases with 790, followed by Caloocan with 431 and
Quezon City with 418.
Central Luzon, Central Visayas, Calabarzon and
Zamboanga followed with the highest number of dengue cases, with
1,580, 1,384, 937 and 803, respectively.
Duque said that with the increasing number of
dengue cases, the Health department has intensified its anti-dengue
campaign since January.
“Our budget on our campaign had [been]
increased to P50 million from the previous P20 to P25 million. That
does not include the budget for hospitals to treat dengue
patients,” he explained.
The Health department also met with officials of
the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Interior
and Local Government for the monitoring of dengue cases in schools.
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