MANILA, Philippines — While new dengue cases continue to drop, the total number of patients who were afflicted with the mosquito-borne disease this year has already breached more than 400,000.
Based on the Department of Health (DOH)-Epidemiology Bureau’s monitoring, there are already 402,694 dengue cases nationwide as of Nov. 16, a 92-percent increase from last year, when there were only 209,335 cases.
Since the start of the year, 1,502 persons have died from dengue, up from last year’s 1,075.
The current total this year has already exceeded the overall cases seen since 2012.
The last time the country saw a surge in dengue cases was in 2016, when 220,518 cases and 1,092 deaths were recorded for the entire year.
The DOH data showed that in the last seven years, full-year cases range from a little over 113,000 to more than 220,000.