The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday urged the public to practice what it called the “4 o’clock habit” to help bring down cases of the deadly dengue fever, which is expected to surge during the rainy season.
For some strange reason, dengue-virus-carrying mosquitoes prefer to bite humans between 4 to 6 a.m. and again between 4 to 6 p.m. These magic hours are what the Department of Health is taking advantage of these days to curb the spread of a potentially deadly infection.
With the Department of Health reporting rising cases of dengue—at least 20,000 are already infected with more than a hundred dead from its complications—the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) is warning of another similar health threat that could affect even more individuals, particularly schoolchildren coming into classes next week.
A single bite by a dengue-carrying mosquito can be highly fatal. While this known fact is already a cause for concern, what should really ring those alarm bells is another fact: the incidence and threat of dengue continue to rise, year after year, as stated in the report of the Philippine Association of Entomologists (PAE).
The government’s medical researchers have embarked on a new study to determine if there is science in the claims that the plant called “tawa-tawa” has therapeutic properties.
FOR SOMEONE who heads the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine’s dengue research group, the news that her own child was brought to a hospital with dengue fever would come as a startling revelation—this mosquito-borne viral disease spares no one.
The whole point of being a dad is to be the hero: you’re the one who makes the “ouchies” and the “boo-boos” go away, the only man your daughters can trust, and the proper role model for your sons. This is what my father taught me, and this lesson was surely passed on from his father, and his father before that. When the time comes, I will definitely do my best to convey this to my 6-year-old son, Miggy.
THERE HAVE been nearly 40,000 cases of dengue this year in the Philippines, and amid the ongoing distribution of traps for the virus-carrying mosquitoes and reminders to clean up areas where the insects might breed, work by Australian scientists offers a potential alternative method for countering the transmission of dengue fever. In two papers published [...]
First, the good news: The number of patients diagnosed with dengue since January is 33.5 percent lower compared to the same period last year. Even the number of those who died from the most common mosquito-borne viral disease in humans is also 50 percent lower. The bad news? “Well, 45,333 is 45,333 (as of Aug. [...]
Dengue fever, a debilitating mosquito-borne disease that infected close to 124,000 Filipinos in 2010 alone, may soon become a thing of the past. This is because if all goes well in the final test being done here in the Philippines, the world will finally have its first effective vaccine against dengue no later than 2014. [...]
AFTER MONTHS of scorching heat, the rainy season has always been a welcome respite for many. This same season, however, can be a cause for alarm as it brings with it not just cool weather, but also a number of diseases, even life-threatening ones such as dengue. According to the Department of Health, dengue—a disease [...]
