We add our voice to the rising call for local government units, public and private health workers, particularly those from the provincial down to the barangay levels to report all public health threats and emergencies, particularly at this point dengue, to the Department of Health.
Before the weekend, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has registered a rising dengue total death toll at 202 in some regions.
In the Eastern Visayas region, death toll from the dengue fever—sometimes rising to 40.5 degrees C—has risen to 21 by latest count this week alone, with 5,577 others hospitalized from January 1 to July 16, which is twice the number in the comparative period in 2018.
A silver lining has appeared, with the recent declaration of dengue outbreak in Iloilo by the Department of Health, with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) giving assurances to the public that confinements due to dengue are compensable.
PhilHealth’s president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales has underscored that the corporation “correspondingly insures its eligible patients with dengue (with or without warning) and severe dengue at P10,000 and P16,000.”
These benefits are available at Level 1, 2, and 3 hospitals while non-severe dengue could be treated in primary care facilities.
Farther south, in Zamboanga Sibugay, Gov. Wilter Yap Palma has ordered mayors of the 16 LGUs to conduct synchronized fogging as the entire province is placed in a state of calamity due to the rising cases of dengue—2,908 cases with 10 deaths as at mid-July.
But what really is dengue and what bacterium causes it? Dengue fever is caused by any one of four types of dengue viruses spread by mosquitoes that thrive in and near human lodgings. A person can either have symptoms of dengue fever or may have no symptoms.
After about one week, the mosquito can transmit the virus while biting a healthy person —no such thing, say medical experts, as dengue being spread from person to person .
It is only appropriate that we are aware of the warning signs of dengue infections: severe abdominal pain; persistent vomiting; bleeding gums; vomiting blood; rapid breathing; as well as fatigue and restlessness.
