Dengue – an infectious tropical disease transmitted by mosquitoes, characterized by headache, fever, pains in the joints, and skin rash – is slowly spreading around the country.

A dengue epidemic has already been declared in Davao del Sur which was placed under the state of calamity effective July 7 due to the widespread outbreak of the disease.

At least 14 deaths have been reported in the province.

Davao del Sur provincial information officer Nilda Aniñon recalled that Davao del Sur was placed under a state of calamity during the 1980s because of the severe impact of the dry season or El Niño.

“Though this is the second time that the province is declared under a state of calamity, it is the first time it is plagued by a massive dengue incidence,” Aniñon said.

Davao del Sur was placed under the state of calamity on July 7 during the inaugural Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) session after cases of the dreadful dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) reached 600 cases, already considered an alarming level by the Provincial Health of Office of Davao del Sur.

Aniñon said most of the dengue death cases were children.

Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti or more rarely the aedes albopictus mosquito, both of which feed exclusively during day-light hours.

The Provincial Health Office also reported that Digos City is the hardest hit among other areas of Davao del Sur with dengue cases to have reached 352.

The municipality of Bansalan ranked second with 95 cases and Sta.Cruz with 57 cases, the rest of the victims are spread out in the various municipalities of the province, Aniñon said.

In the Eastern Visayas, local health officials reported 37 deaths out of the 3,862 dengue cases from January to July this year.

In the Cordillera region, health officials reported 539 cases for the first half of the year, a sharp increase from the 317 fever reported in the same period last year.

Ifugao and Mountain Province registered unusual increases in the number of individuals with dengue fever.

For the first six months of this year, Ifugao recorded 187 dengue fever cases compared to the 25 cases during the same period last year while Mountain Province had over 100 cases this year compared to the 32 cases last year.

Aside from the three local governments, Apayao reported increase in dengue cases from 5 cases last year to 64 for the first semester of this year.

Dr. Myrna Cabotaje, regional director of the Department of Health (DoH) in the Cordillera, said the best way to fight dengue is cleanliness coupled with the agency’s “search and destroy” campaign against breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Officials said symptoms of dengue include sudden onset of fever associated with headache, muscle, and joint pains, and rashes.

In Baguio City, dengue fever cases rose to over 100 cases during the first six months compared to the only 44 cases last year.

In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a total of 365 persons have been afflicted with dengue for the past six months.

ARMM Health Secretary Kadil Sinolinding said at least six dengue-related deaths – three in May, one in March, and two in June – have been listed in Sulu where 183 cases of the killer disease have been previously reported.

The other Muslim Mindanao areas which submitted dengue cases during the first semester of 2010, Sinolinding said, are Maguindanao which registered 89 incidents; Lanao del Sur, 60; and Tawi-Tawi, 33.

Sinolinding, in a local radio interview, noted that most of those found suffering from the mosquito-bite-caused ailment were infants and teenagers in rural communities.

In General Santos City, Dr. Jacinto Makilang, city health officer, said they already recorded at least 231 positive dengue cases from the city’s 26 barangays since January and with one confirmed fatality so far.

He said a two-year-old girl identified as Joanna Sophia Rabaya succumbed last Monday to complications caused by dengue hemorrhagic fever in a private hospital in the city.

Makilang said that based on the initial site survey conducted by the city’s sanitary inspectors, the victim could have been infected by the disease at their community in Barangay Conel here.

He said the sanitary inspectors found several unattended water containers near the child’s home that possibly served as breeding ground of the dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

Makilang said the city’s anti-dengue campaign is mainly centered on the adoption of the 4-S strategy earlier introduced by the DoH.

4-S stands for search and destroy, self-protection, seek early treatment, and say no to indiscriminate fogging.

“It’s important for all of us to clean up our surroundings on a regular basis and get rid of all mosquito breeding places to prevent the further spread of dengue,” Makilang said. (Dexter A. See, Tony Pe. Rimando, and PNA)