3 WHO experts to visit PH to help hospitals manage dengue

At least three dengue experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) are expected to arrive in the Philippines next week to help hospitals better manage and address the mosquito-borne virus.

According to Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo, the specialists will look into the needs of the country’s major hospitals so that they could become specialty centers for the disease and thereby reduce the mortality rate.

Among the hospitals being considered are San Lazaro Hospital, Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center and the Philippine General Hospital.

Domingo added that the three specialists would also train doctors on how they could better manage dengue.

Based on the DOH’s latest data on dengue, a total of 26,042 cases have been reported during the first quarter of the this year. The figure is 17 percent lower than last year’s 31,358 cases.

Of these, 136 patients died from the disease. Most of the deaths were recorded in Metro Manila (17), Rizal (11), Negros Occidental (10), Zamboanga del Sur (8) Cebu (7) and Misamis Occidental (7). /atm