DOH again raises alert vs dengue fever

The Department of Health (DOH) reminded the public to intensify the cleaning of their surroundings to prevent the resurgence of mosquitos that carry the dengue virus.

Health Undersecretary Eric Tayag reiterated that people can prevent dengue by cleaning up areas where mosquitos can breed and thereby eliminating deaths caused by the mosquito-borne viral infection, mostly among school-age children.

Based on the latest disease surveillance report of the DOH, the country logged 51,323 dengue cases from Jan. 1 to May 20.

This is 30 percent higher than the number of cases reported in the same period.

Deaths caused by dengue, however, declined to 176 during the same period from 212 reported a year ago.

Case fatality rate, or the number of deaths out of the total number of reported cases, slumped to 2.2 percent this year from 12.5 percent in 2022.

In Metro Manila alone, there were 5,726 dengue cases, or 68 percent more compared to the confirmed infections last year. —KATHLEEN DE VILLA

READ: DOH sees clustering of dengue cases in some parts of PH