Records from the DOH-NEC showed that from January to June 11 this year, there were already some 27,071 dengue cases nationwide.

However, the DOH said the figures were lower than the 28,234 cases for the same period last year, or about a 4.12-percent decrease, the report stated.

It also noted a downtrend in the number of mortalities this year with 172 incidences, a lower figure compared to the 222 recorded in 2010.

“Dengue is everybody’s concern, but with our concerted efforts, it can be controlled,” Health Secretary Enrique Ona said, adding that the public must take note that the disease has developed into a year-long threat and not only during the rainy season.

In line with continuous efforts to combat the deadly Aedes aegypti mosquito infection, the DOH conducted the first “Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Dengue Day” on Wednesday in a bid to further heighten the awareness campaign on the disease and on how to quell it.

The Department of Science and Technology, on the other hand, has introduced a device called “Ovi-Larvi Trap System” that entices mosquitoes to lay eggs in a solution that will eventually kill them, as well as put up insecticide-treated nets in school premises.

Barangay health offices in the cities of Quezon, Caloocan, San Juan and Valenzuela were also found to have admitted three or more cases in the past four weeks.

Dengue victims were as young as a month-old and as old as 89 years, although 40 percent of the victims belong to the one-to-10 age group.

More than half, or 53 percent of the cases reported, were also found to be among males, according to the DOH report.

(Sara Fabunan)