MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Health (DOH) yesterday raised an alert over a supposed hyperactive strain of dengue monitored in the Ilocos region.
The dengue strain, health officials said, hits usually dark-skinned people, particularly children.?Health Secretary Enrique Ona said the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) has been conducting tests on blood samples of four dengue strains to determine under which type the new strain can be classified.?
“For the moment we are calling it an Ilocano strain,” Ona told a news forum in Quezon City.
Ona noted reports that the hyperactive strain of dengue targets dark-skinned people and the initial sign of nose bleeding, apart from fever, would manifest in an affected individual.
Ona said the resurgence of the new strain was discovered by RITM, which is also developing a new anti-dengue vaccine.
Dr. Rose Capeding, chief of the dengue research group of the RITM, said that since dengue is endemic in the Philippines they have already raised an alert of the possible outbreak of the disease in certain parts of the country.
At the same time, Capeding added, the RITM is developing a vaccine now in its clinical test stage.?
Capeding said they are still in the process of determining if there is a fifth strain, but so far the type 3 and 4 strains are the most prevalent.?
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