Dengue Fever Still Killing In The Philippines
The number of cases of dengue fever have doubled in Manila. In Cebu there is good and bad news, the number of cases are down by nearly a third but the deaths from the illness has nearly doubled with 76 deaths, 33 within Cebu City.
The recent death of a toddler there sparked new alerts and reminding people to make sure there is no standing water that provides a place for them to breed. Of course, a person can do every thing right and others around them don’t and mosquitoes breed. And of course, mosquitoes just happen.
A recent death in the Leyte Province City of Tacloban of a five year old has caused new alerts there as well.
The public and health professional continue to ask for more pest control by the spraying of pesticides. I’ve seen one such operation one time since I’ve been here. It is surprising that there are not more mosquitoes here. They are not nearly as bad here as they are in Memphis and the Mississippi Delta had many more of the pesky flying insects. My guess is they are not as bad since so much of the water is salt or brackish water. Not a place for a mosquito to thrive.
They are at their worst at dusk, just as they are in the states. On my walks, I sometime run into them just outside the developed area of the city. So if it is getting late, I avoid those areas. The government officials appear to be taking some measures to fight the illness and some point their finger back at the public, reminding them to protect their children.
It appears the children have the hardest time fighting off the virus. I keep seeing different information regarding vaccines. Most sites say there is no vaccine but other sources say there are vaccines. Dengue fever is also called Japanese Encephalitis. Encephalitis is a term many Americans will know.
When I was a teenager in the 70’s, we had a breakout of encephalitis in Mississippi. My girlfriend’s parents would make us come in instead of sitting outside and talk. We hate that, funny I was so willing to give up an air conditioner back then. Anything for a pretty girl and she was too. 
I don’t believe anything has changed on the encephalitis vaccine. Maybe those sites I saw were not reliable.
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Sorry to say that there are absolutely no Dengue vaccines.Well, in truth I have not looked in more than year but I would like to think I would have come across it in the interim. We lost a little 6 year old cousin about 3 years back from Dengue, which to me is the scariest given the death rate on Mindanao. In fact, I spend roughly 1/3rd of my times on Cebu because my wife is working on another degree at South Western, and was under the impression that Dengue had gone the way of malaria on Cebu Island but much to my sorrow I was far off the mark. Maybe I am off the mark on the innoculation or treatment as well, that would be wonderful.
Govt. figures here need to be taken with a grain of salt, in cases like this a gross UNDER-estimation. So, since the offical rates for Mindanao are in the thousands (for Dengue), once can only imagine the actual death rate annualy.
Aside from Dengue, Mindanao has a few strains of malaria, a couple quite virulent, killing within 2 months of transmission. A couple of years ago a well known TV reporter from Manila went with his crew, up into the mountains and although he and most with him were quite healthy, and were above the normal altitude for caution, they were bitten and each one of them died within 7 weeks.
Cebu though has no official cases at all, for the enitre island and for quite some time. Malarial prphylactics are not easy to find outside of Manila, although health stations (can be found in most barangays across the country) are SUPPOSED to stock quinine. As advanced as science is, quinine is still valuable. I hoard it whenever i find it and take it every day, although with the vierulent strains its main value is psychological.
Parasites are nother issue along these lines.Very bad throughout the Philippines and universally found in Mindanao is Schistomiasis. Any permanent or semi-permanent still body of water is going to have it and in some places most of the population is carrying it. It is not communicable but is makes life a bit unformtable for their host, and they are there for life. My mother in law suffers from it. So, it is a good idea to never go into standing water in the Philippines and certainly south of the Visayas.
Hey Rach! I got sick of Windows the other day and installed Ubuntu/Linux on my notebook. Love it but it is taking up a significant amount of time trying to get things working that don’t want to work. LOL
I looked up Degnue again and found this:
So at least something is in the works. I’ve only gone to the funeral of one child and I don’t know if I’d do that again. My cousin, age 9. It is very hard to loose a child. Destroyed my uncle.
i thought there was a vaccine for malaria? I didn’t get one since I was going to Cebu City. After learning more about it, even in Cebu, I’d think it might have been a good idea to get it but I don’t know much about the vaccine. Perhaps it has risk. Do you have it? I’m confused.
I suspect under reporting is a real problem and high numbers would likely be a hamper to tourism but not as much as the terror warnings on the State Dept. site.
As always, great information. I sent you an email, did you get it?
PS I’m runing a bit behind because of the change to linux. I gotta get busy writing…..
You have addressed one of my major concerns about moving back to Mindanao. The presence of potentially fatal illnesses.
We have a 2 year old son, so naturally I do consider him as a factor in living in an area where the possibility of contracting dengue or malaria is a real and ever present possibility.
I mentioned before that in April 05 I contracted dengue. Bedridden for 2 weeks, and extremely weak and beat down for 2 more weeks. Sailors 300 years ago named it (very aptly) breakbone fever. No description could be better! Dengue is something the Embassy CAN’T help you with!
I think my wife is convinced it was cured by liberal applications of efficiscent oil.
Jan of 06 I got popped by amoebic dysentary. Yeah, I must be a bug magnet! I was “slip-shucked” (Joe knows what it means lol) by a restaurant where we ate often. This particular day they were out of bottled water, so they made my tea with tap water.
6 days later and weighing about 12-15 lbs less (couldn’t eat and got a lot of excercise) I finally got some Flagil, THE CURE, and within 24 hours was recovering. If you ever get this little nasty, head for the closest doctor and get FLAGIL!
Better still, stick to C2 canned tea or San Mig.
Tap water? That was on of my first lessons here. Don’t drink the tap water as Jessie turned up her nose in disgust at the idea.
Schools would be a problem for me regarding children. There is something positive to be said about life experiences that travel can bring in opening the mind but its hard to put life experiences forward in a way that will get one hired.
I’ve spoken to a classmate from high school that has made a career out of teaching internationally. I asked him about the schools here and he told me there is an international school in Manila but the pay is quite low so they have trouble attracting quality teachers from abroad. From what I’ve seen so far, I just couldn’t bring my children here during their school years, not to live and go to school.
If I did, I would look into setting up a curriculum with a private school in the US. In Tn. once the kids are in middle and high school, the requirements for home schooling go up and there are private schools which offer programs to supervise the home schooling and thereby meeting the state requirements, usually exceeding them but that road is not inexpensive. If I could arrange for that and for someone to home school my child for me then I would be willing to bring them here. I home schooled one of my step children in the sixth grade myself. That was because the school she was set to go to was extremely dangerous.
Yes dengue is a concern, I don’t know really how wide spread it is though. The numbers I’ve seen indicate to me, the odds are in my favor. Problem is if children get it, it is more likely to be fatal. Most of the death occur in children. That would lay a lot of guilt at my door, I think. Not sure it would be justified but I don’t think it would be avoidable either.
There may be vaccines out there for dengue of limited value. You’ll find articles on the net that say there is no vaccine and a few that say there are. From what I can tell they’re are but they have limited value. I read about one that contains three different strains that has been some what effective. I don’t know where I read it though, mostly I found there are no vaccines. One article I read indicated the problem was that there are so many different strains.
We have dengue in the US, its called encephalitis. There was a major outbreak in the mid to late 70s in Mississippi where I was at the time. Lot of adults died. For a while there was a death a day.
Are there not vaccines for malaria? My doctor said I didn’t need one since I wasn’t headed out to remove areas. I should have got one. Malaria though is not common in Cebu at all but yea, some place of Mindanao it is more common.
Filipina have some strange cures for things. Our youngest had the mumps last week and they got some kind of blue stuff and put on his cheeks and face. I was amused and then I saw his mumps go away in a day or two. Seemed might fast to me.
Correction on what I said about the schools, I went back and looked again and my friend told me something different than what I remembered.
I continue to give more thought to the subject of dengue. True…I’m 57 yrs old and the thought of losing my son to a disease like dengue, no matter how remote the possibility, is an uppermost concern. It’s going to take considerable thought about moving back until he’s older. Of course, at my age, I may be in the ground here before he ever sees the Philippines.
I very very well remember the encephalitis that ran thru the south back around 77-78. I experienced that first hand also, but the doctors diagnosed me with an undetermined virus, later found to be the encephilitis strain that went thru the southland. Told you I am a bug magnet. Very few people I’de wish these critters upon.
So, now back to rethinking the move anytime soon.
I’m going to do some more research on this, although I agree that as of yet, there is no pharmaceutical preventive.
I would find it hard to bring my children here but my oldest is no longer a child, he’s 30. That is so hard for me to believe. My youngest is 23. Geesh I’m so old.
57 is not old, it certainly isn’t young. I kind of doubt I’ll make it to 60 but I’d like to be wrong. i’m having way too much fun.
I don’t think I’d let dengue stop *ME* but I’m not you. Thing is, there is probably a bigger danger of being murdered in most American cities than dying from dengue in the Philippines. Same is true of terrorism, more chance I’d be killed in a drive by in Memphis than a victim of terrorism, even in Mindanao. Education is really the issue for me, outside of Manila, I think I would do a disservice to my child. That doesn’t mean I apply the same line of thought to others. I don’t, I let others make their own choices. But I have not looked into hiring a teacher to handle the home schooling. That’s likely cheaper than a private school in the US.
Let us know about your research.
hw sad.huhuhu
Hi Russ, there is a preventative meds for malaria called quinine. We were prescribed it when we went to PNG. Not much used nowadays, but few doctors use it for something else other than for malaria. As for antibiotics like Flagyl,(its the correct spelling) I know you can buy them over the counter no prescription in PI. I wish the govt would educate the people the proper use of antibiotics because of the risks of developing anti-biotic resistant microbes. A good example is the tuberculum bacteria which causes tuberculosis (widely known as TB in PI). Hospitals are now finding antibiotic resistant tuberculum bacterium. If the Filipinos must use Antibiotics with out supervision, at least they must understand that you can’t take 2 or 3 tablet, feel better and then discontinue. This is how resistant develop. And then it will cause them more grief.
Talking of grief. You’ve got just about everything covered in you website, re-living in the Philippines. But you forgot one important point – Death!. or how to die in the Philippines, how much it will cost to be buried and/or if the Island provides cremation services. I know it sounds morbid, but it is the reality of life. You yourself kept saying you might not last past 60 etc. To all of you expats reading this site, have you actually thought and prepared yourself that you could die in PI?
dying in PI is just like in any other country,u can choose whether u want to be cremated or buried, ashes can be kept at home, in crypt at a cemetary or a church, or whatever the persons wish. Funeral services is way cheaper in PI compared here in US.
I’m uncertain as to why you brought this up. Flying a body back to the States would be very expensive. Cremation wouldn’t be so bad, i guess.
I brought this up because I think many Kano and Balikbayans don’t think about dying in PI. But why should they? However, one should be prepared so as not to leave the grieving the issue with what to do with the body. I gather flying a dead body is more expensive than a live one.
You know that doesn’t make sense but I would admit I don’t know what it takes to care for a body in a plane. At first glance it would seem, normal freight charges should apply. I guess six weeks via balikbayan probably wouldn’t be a good idea.
Rusty, Christine is right. a friend of mine stayed with her husband in PI and the Kano died. He is now buried in Cebu City. could not afford to bring the body back to US. That’s what I told my husband that if something happens to me…be cremated and bring my ashes back home. This is a fact.
Anyway, dengue is bad in the Phils but there is a cure if caught early, I still sleep with mosquito net even if the room is airconditioned. I bring mosquito repellent for my daughter. do you have your regular shots while in PI?
I never said she was wrong. someone else posted the death message.
When the American was killed in Las Angles someone that claimed to be part of the family said the cost to get the body home was over $6K USD but they may have just made that up.
I suspect if I died here, I’d be cremated here or buried, it wouldn’t be my call and it doesn’t matter to me. Funerals are for families, not the dead.