Dengue epidemic abating — Duque

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s dengue epidemic is abating, with 4,438 cases recorded from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, data from the Department of Health (DOH)’s Epidemiology Bureau showed.

According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, there has been a declining trend in the number of dengue cases being reported to the agency.

“Hopefully this is the end of our dengue epidemic so I hope next year we’ll see a much lower incidence of dengue,” he said in an interview.

Based on the latest DOH report, there were a total of 4,438 cases recorded from Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, which is 37 percent lower than the 7,025 cases during the same period in 2018. This brings to 387,254 the number of cases recorded since January. The number of cases recorded in 2018 was 194,267.

The DOH had documented the highest cases in a week in July at 14,321.

Last August, Duque had declared the “national dengue epidemic” as cases of the mosquito-borne disease continued to soar. Four regions have exceeded the epidemic threshold.

Duque noted they expect to see lower cases in 2020 “partly” because of the three year-cycle of dengue. The cycle usually soars on the third year which, in this case, is 2019.

“But we’ll never know because of climate change. It’s so unpredictable,” he added.