Health Department Rings Alarm over Dengue

In an apparent attempt to appease the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) scare in the country and put it into perspective, the Department of Health (DoH) has sounded an alarm over the threat of the more dangerous dengue fever at the onset of the rainy season.

Dengue fever, which is spread by mosquitoes, kills thousands of Filipinos every year and downs a much greater number of people than all victims of SARS combined worldwide. The mortality rate among dengue victims was 6 percent, higher than the less than 5 percent mortality rate among SARS victims.

In the 1990s, dengue fever grew to epidemic proportion in different areas of the country, including Metro Manila. Experts believe that dengue-carrying mosquitoes inhabit stagnant water. Flood-prone areas are most susceptible to the dengue virus.

Unlike SARS virus, which spreads through physical contact with an infected person, the dengue virus infects its victims through mosquito bites. Cases of dengue infection are limited to particular areas and seldom spread to other areas.

The Department of Health (DoH) said an outbreak of dengue fever is possible starting June at the onset of the rainy season.

Filipinos, however, cannot be blamed for being more scared by the SARS virus. While it is true that the mortality rate among SARS victims is less than 5 percent worldwide, the mortality rate in the country is an alarming 67 percent. Two of the three SARS victims (both of them Filipinos) monitored in Philippine hospitals eventually died. A foreigner treated of the disease had recovered fully well.

Three more Filipinos died of SARS infection in Hong Kong and Singapore. The government has also allotted P1 billion to prevent the spread of SARS in the Philippines.

While the health department is sounding an alarm over the threat of the more dangerous dengue fever, it is not known if it also has the P1 billion to prevent the disease.

If there is one thing that the Philippine government should learn from the way other countries handle the SARS virus, it is extreme caution and highest respect for human life.

Somehow, thousands of Filipinos died of dengue fever in the past because the disease did not receive the worldwide attention that SARS gets today. Perhaps too it is a reflection that SARS is a city epidemic that affects the affluent whereas Dengue is often found in rural or poorer areas.