Dengue deaths breach 500 mark

MANILA -- Deaths stemming from the dengue menace have already reached more than 500, health officials said Friday.

Based on the latest Dengue Surveillance Report of the Department of Health (DOH), there were 522 deaths tallied from January 1 to August 25. The figures are higher than the 460 deaths recorded from the same period of last year.

Deaths were recorded most in the National Capital Region (86), Calabarzon (78), Davao Region (67), and Western Visayas (64).

The case fatality ratio (CFR) is also higher this year at .60 percent compared to .59 percent last year.

The death incidents scenario comes after the previous report showed that the country has already breached the 80,000 estimate of the health department for the whole of 2012.

Based on the latest data, there are already 87,649 dengue cases in the same period. This is 12 percent higher compared to the similar period last year, which was at 78,218.

Majority of the cases remain in the Metro Manila (17,618), Central Luzon (13,518), and Calabarzon (12,877).

Also, the regions where there is a sharp rise of cases are in Zamboanga Peninsula from 936 to 3,087 (229%); Western Visayas from 2,259 to 6,698 (196%); Northern Mindanao from 1,373 to 3,596 (161%); Davao Region from 2,480 to 6,256 (152%); and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao from 217 to 470 (116%).

More than half or 52.7 percent of the dengue victims were found to be male, the report said.

At least 40 percent of the cases were also found to belong to the 1 to 10 age group. (HDT/Sunnex)