Inquirer files
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa has warned that the country may face a big dengue outbreak this year due to the continuous surge of cases in the first quarter, which could worsen in the latter half of the year due to the onset of the rainy season.
鈥淥ur dengue cases increased by over 75 percent compared to last year. Because of this, we expect an outbreak this year,鈥� Herbosa said in a TV interview on Wednesday. 鈥淓very three to five years, our country experiences a dengue outbreak. Our last outbreak was in 2019, before COVID-19. Now, we are expecting a big outbreak, and it鈥檚 most likely to happen this year,鈥� he said.
READ: DOH logs over 43,000 dengue cases nationwide as of Feb. 15
Based on the latest data from the Department of Health (DOH), dengue cases in the country reached 76,425 from Jan. 1 to March 15, a 78 percent hike compared to 42,822 cases during the same period last year.
The regions of Calabarzon (15,108), National Capital Region (13,761), and Central Luzon (12,424) recorded the highest number of dengue cases. But the DOH pointed out that the case fatality rate, or the number of people dying from the disease, remained low at 0.41 percent. 鈥擠exter Cabalza