Philippines: Govt declares national dengue epidemic
Source: Asia Insurance Review | Sep 2019
The Department of Health (DOH) declared a national dengue epidemic on 6 August following a meeting with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
A total of 167,607 dengue cases were registered from 1 January to 27 July, which was double the number in the corresponding period last year.
More than 700 people have died from dengue, health secretary Francisco Duque said. This makes the Philippines the country in Southeast Asia with the highest fatality rate, which stands at 0.3%.
Senate president Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said the actual number of dengue cases in the Philippines may be higher than is being reported by the DOH, based on the number of reimbursement claims filed with the Philippine Health Insurance, the government-run company which administers the country’s universal health insurance scheme. He said, “There is almost a 70,000 difference between the two, with PhilHealth receiving 174,000 claims and the DOH reporting 106,630 cases from January to June of this year.”
Dengue is the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus, killing more than 25,000 people around the world each year, according to the WHO. A