Disturbing dengue update

Last Tuesday’s 888 News Forum at the swanky Marco Polo Plaza was more alive than usual because apart from coinciding with 888’s 7th anniversary, the presentation had a good mix of panelists, thanks to program coordinator Ely Baquero.

In attendance were Cebu City traffic czar Ruben Almendras, Cebu City Sports Commission chairman and co-founder of the Cebu City Dancesport Team Edward Hayco, Dr. Wyben Briones, chief campaigner of the Massive Larvicide Anti-Dengue Campaign and Marc Canton, convenor of the Movement for a Livable Cebu. Ed Hayco, Dr. Wyben and the MLC are this year’s 888 awardees.

After working close to four years as a journalist, it’s hard not to be jaded day in and day out by news of graft and corruption that we serve the public. In the words of a fellow media worker who has been around and seen it all, mao ra gyud gihapon, petsa og pangan ray mag-usab usab (nothing new with corruption cases, they’re all the same except for the dates and names).

Thankfully, this week’s 888 News Forum carried a lot of positive news owing to the outstanding contribution of torchbearers in the field of health, dance and sport, sustainable development and a greener lifestyle.

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The 888 News Forum’s 2013 individual awardee is Dr. Wyben Briones, a well known civic leader who chairs the Massive Larvicide Anti-Dengue Campaign. The high incidence of dengue cases in Cebu in 2009 prompted Dr. Wyben to initiate the campaign through the Rotary International District 3860.

Four years later, the private sector-driven campaign has not only raised the level of public awareness about the dreaded disease, but also mobilized government health workers, teachers, students and neighborhood volunteers in a massive information drive and community work.

The two-pronged approach is key in motivating people to practice hygiene and participate in the spraying of organic phosphate insecticide called Temephos in breeding places of the larvae or eggs of the Aedes egypti mosquito.

Such activities will be conducted in pre-identified areas in Cebu City and other municipalities this Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 17 and 18) to be followed by similar programs in October up to January and April next year.

To measure the success of the program, one only has to look at the incidence of dengue cases these past few years.

From Jan. 1 to Aug. 3, the Cebu City Health Department- Epidemiology Statistics and Surveillance Unit recorded 1,297 cases and two deaths attributed to dengue fever. During the same period last year, records show 2,145 dengue cases and seven deaths, or a decrease of close to 40 percent.

The campaign is gaining momentum and Dr. Wyben is more determined to wipe out the disease in as many areas as possible.

At the 888 anniversary program the other day, Briones sidled up to me to say that he needed to be in a southern municipality to lead another grassroots-level campaign, suggesting that he skip the sumptuous lunch prepared by Marco Polo Plaza.

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Dengue fever is common in tropical countries, but globalization, air travel and climate change may have changed the equation.

According to a study published in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics, “researchers found that some mosquitoes of the main vector species, Aedes aegypti, are able to pass on the virus after sucking blood from an infected human but that others do not.”

The answer lies in a genetic pairing between insect and virus, according to the paper.

“To some extent, it depends on the specific pairing of mosquito and virus, so it’s hard to tell how exactly it works,” said Louis Lambrechts of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, as reported by Radio France International RFI.

“It is not only the genetic factors of the mosquitoes that determine transmission but also the combination of genetic factors of the mosquitoes and the viruses that are important,” Lambrechts said as reported by RFI.

“After the mosquito feeds on an infected individual, the virus becomes established in the insect’s mid-gut cells, then spreads throughout the rest of body.”

“The mosquito becomes infectious only once the virus reaches the salivary glands and is released into its saliva. But the infection is established only when the right strain of mosquito meets the right strain of dengue,” according to the paper.

In other words, doctors have found “another layer of complexity,” in the disease reaching temperate countries which would be difficult to determine and prevent.

Western researchers are a bit stunned by the findings and while they continue with the study, they admit that initial results could have implications for developing “genetically-engineered, dengue-resistant mosquitos.”

I would have wanted Dr. Wyben to react on the ominous dengue update, but our interaction will have to wait another time, hopefully when his anti-dengue calendar clears up.