Monday, April 14, 2008 Dengue carrying mosquitoes 'deadlier' this summer
THE Department of Health (DOH) said dengue-carrying mosquito aedes aegypti is more dangerous this summer than during the rainy season.
The DOH said aedes egypti mosquitoes breed rapidly in areas with stagnant waters, which some ignores because of the belief that summer is not a good time for mosquitoes to multiply.
In a briefing with provincial and national media men attending the science writers' workshop at the Diamond Hotel in Manila, the DOH said the public should erase this kind of thinking or belief.
"Be clean anytime; either summer or rainy season," stressed the DOH in its advisory. "Incubation period of dengue on a victim's body runs only at about two days compared to rainy season that sometimes runs for about five days."
"Dengue is really dangerous this summer time," the DOH said, adding that dengue cases from January to first week of April this year had reached almost 6,400 nationwide compared to last year's 5,000 cases.
"So we hope that the people now are aware that dengue is not only dangerous during the rainy season but even worse during summer," a DOH representative said.
Dengue is characterized by sudden high fever, skin rashes, vomiting and nose bleeding, among others. (Erwin Ambo Delilan)
