WHO puts Philippines, some Asian countries on alert over dengue

June 15, 2019

The World Health Organization (WHO) Saturday issued an alert to the Philippines and five other Asian countries against a possible increase in dengue cases.

The other Asian countries which received an alert from WHO were Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. .

"The WHO Western Pacific Region has observed early increases in the number of dengue cases reported so far this year," said WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific Takeshi Kasai.

"(The matter) is especially urgent with the rainy season coming to many parts of Asia,” he added.

In the Philippines, there are already a total of 77,040 cases of dengue, including 328 deaths, were reported in the first 20 weeks of 2019.

In Cambodia, there has been an upward trend in suspected dengue cases recorded since the beginning of 2019, highlighted by more than 1,300 suspected cases were reported in week 21 alone.

In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, suspected dengue case numbers are higher than the same period during the previous five years.

In Malaysia, the number of cases is around twice that of the same period in 2018.

In Singapore, the number of dengue cases has been increasing over the past 8 weeks.

In Viet Nam, the suspected cases of dengue is more than three times the number for the same period in 2018.

"This is a signal that we need to work with countries to strengthen care as well as prevention," said Kasai.

WHO, then, recommended that dengue-endemic countries continue educating the population and health workers on recognizing dengue symptoms and the warning signs of severe dengue.

WHO said it also supports countries to train health professionals on the diagnosis and proper management of dengue and to prepare health centres and hospitals for effective response in case of outbreaks and influxes of patients.

Finally, the WHO encouraged governments and communities to reduce the spread of dengue by informing the public of how to clean up mosquito breeding sites.

“With these measures, we can minimize the impact of dengue on people in our Region and save lives,” said Kasai. DMS