MANILA –The Department of Health (DOH) has reported that the number of dengue cases decreased in the first eight weeks of 2018 compared to the same period last year.
“The dengue incidence has in fact gone down,” DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said when reporters asked about the current number of dengue cases in the country.
Duque has been doing rounds in several hospitals to check the facilities and medical personnel’s compliance to guidelines on admitting patients who have been immunized with Dengvaxia dengue vaccine.
Duque said that case fatality ratio (CFR) or number of cases of deaths over number of cases is still less than one percent based on their current assessment.
“It’s probably between 0.4 and 0.6 percent. So it hasn’t really change,” he said.
Based on the DOH’s Dengue Disease Surveillance Report for the period of January 1 to February 24, there have been 15,599 dengue cases recorded.
“This is 32.56% lower compared to the same time period last year’s (23,131) cases,” the report said.
The report also said that there were 74 CFR (0.47%) reported for the same period.
The report also indicated that the current CFR was lower compared to the same period last year which were recorded at 140 deaths or 0.61%.
The DOH report also showed that most or 24.12% of those afflicted with dengue are aged 10-14 years old.
The report also showed that 53.51% of the cases are males.