Dengue in the Philippines
The National Epidemiology Center of the Philippines' Department of Health reports a total of 132,046 dengue cases from January to 13 October 2012. This is 24.92% higher compared to the same time period in 2011.
Of the total cases, 20.42% came from the National Capital Region (NCR), with highest contributors from Quezon City (7 754 cases), Manila (4 379 cases) and Caloocan City (2 967 cases). Next to NCR, Region III and Region IV-A registered the highest number of cases, which are 15.79% and 15.66% respectively, to the overall figure. These three areas, collectively characterized as highly urbanized and densely-populated, were consistently reported as the three most dengue endemic regions in the country over the past years.
Majority of the infected patients were 1 to 10 year old children (40% of the total cases), and more than half were males (52.8%). A total of 701 deaths (CFR 0.53%) was recorded since January 2012, and most of them were children.
WHO Contributions
The National Dengue Prevention and Control Program of the Department of Health has six (6) components working towards the program’s main goal, that is, to reduce morbidity and mortality from dengue infection by preventing the transmission of the virus from the mosquito vector to human.
The WHO Philippine Country Office has provided technical assistance, financial aid and staff support to several dengue activities in the country.