ASEAN, WHO pick Angeles City as host of Dengue Day events

ANGELES CITY, Philippines – The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the World Health Organization (WHO) has chosen this city as venue for this year’s Dengue Day observance on Sunday, as there has been a significant drop in local dengue cases that could serve as a blueprint for an international anti-dengue campaign.

The Department of Health (DOH) regional office said this year’s Dengue Day theme is “Unity and harmony within the ASEAN community: Key in the fight against dengue.”

Dr. Christine Joy Patio of the city health office said delegates from various ASEAN countries are expected to attend Dengue Day events during the weekend.

Patio said ASEAN organizers chose Angeles City as this year’s Dengue Day venue because of the significant decline of dengue cases here in recent years.

She noted a 60 percent drop in local cases of the mosquito-borne ailment from 2012 to 2013. Statistics showed 1,170 dengue cases in this city in 2012, and only 639 cases in 2013.

ASEAN Dengue Day is an advocacy event held every June 15 to increase public awareness of dengue, to mobilize resources for its prevention and control, and to demonstrate the region’s commitment to tackling the disease.

The advocacy event was agreed upon during the 10th ASEAN Health Ministers’ Meeting in 2010. The first regional event was held in 2011 in Jakarta, Indonesia, while Myanmar hosted the regional celebration in Yangon in 2012. Last year’s Dengue Day was hosted by Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dr. Rhoda Cruz, chief of the DOH regional office’s dengue monitoring group, said the foreign and local participants in the two-day annual event will visit local barangays to observe anti-dengue projects of the city health office.

Patio attributed the significant decline in dengue cases to an intensive campaign against the Aedes Egypti mosquito, a carrier of the disease, particularly in schools and business establishments. “Not only health workers, but also civic organizations in the city are involved,” she said.

She said the anti-dengue campaign being pushed by the DOH, the so-called “4 o’clock habit,” starts in May and runs through the rainy season when breeding places of dengue-carrying mosquitoes normally abound.

ASEAN has reported an increasing number of dengue cases from 2012 to 2013. Le Luong Minh, ASEAN secretary-general, said, “Dengue represents a significant economic burden on our region and hinders our development goals. The importance in addressing dengue at the regional level involving various stakeholders in a proactive and collective response cannot be overemphasized.”

Dengue, according to ASEAN, is one of the fastest growing emerging infectious diseases in the world, and the Asia-Pacific accounts for 75 percent of cases globally.

WHO has estimated 50 million to 100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. In the Western Pacific region, 31 out of 37 countries and areas have reported dengue cases in the past two decades.

The ASEAN members are Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.