Did you know that?: On Dengue

Dengue fever used to be known only as a disease during the rainy season. When the rains come, people are advised to clean their backyards, throw water collecting from old tires and cans left undisturbed and where the culprit of the disease may thrive. Nowadays, dengue has intensified into a year-round threat. We don’t only expect the disease to occur during the rainy days but for the whole year.

The DOH has actually disseminated this change of Dengue’s course but still a few mothers are not yet aware. Why? A few months back there were kids who had fever for a week or so in our community and still the mothers failed to seek consult for these kids maybe because of financial reasons. They were just contained with giving paracetamol for the fever and that was it. The illness progressed and sad to say it claimed the lives of these kids. They learned it was dengue when the kids were brought to the hospital because of bleeding. But it was too late.

Maybe because there was no rain that they were not expecting dengue at all. But because of increasing temperatures and the totally unpredictable weather, dengue became something that should be expected all year round. Therefore, we must continue to clean our surroundings and inform our neighbors to clean as well. A clean community is a dengue-free community.

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