EDITORIAL - People need to do their bit against dengue

While the Senate and other agencies are busy investigating the controversy over the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, maybe everyone should take the opportunity presented by the heightened public awareness on the issue by doing what can be done to minimize the continuing threat posed by the dreaded mosquito-borne disease. Now might be a good time, for example, to aggressively push those clean-up drives meant to eliminate the known breeding places of mosquitoes.

The country cannot be fixated on the Dengvaxia controversy alone. The resolution to the issue is not going to happen overnight. In fact, the Senate inquiry has only just finished its second day of hearings and nobody knows when the third will be called. Besides, regardless of when the investigation finally unearths what really happened, the disease itself continues to ravage its victims without letup.

So on with the fight. And with no real cure for dengue still around, people need to make do and fend for themselves. They need to resort to preventive measures either by themselves or in consonance with government-initiated or private sector-led programs. They can always try the simple, easy and tested formula for fighting dengue – and that is by the simple cleaning of one’s surroundings.

People cannot allow themselves to get caught up in the controversy. They cannot allow themselves to be distracted by the drama that unfolds with each Senate hearing. They cannot allow themselves to get all impassioned by the political undertones that hounded the controversy right from the start. And if it cannot be helped that they must, they need to stay in control of themselves and do what only they themselves can do.

There is only so much that the government or any health advocacy group can do as a civic and social obligation when it comes to cleaning up communities as an anti-dengue preventive measure. It is still people who need to be at the very center of every initiative. In fact, people do not need any help from anybody if they truly want to stay safe.

At its most elemental level, people can clean up their own homes. That is where the fight starts. And that is because it is where dengue can also hit real hard. The home is where the family is. And the family comes first in the order of priorities when it comes to health and safety. Let the investigative bodies take care of their own responsibilities. People need to look out for their own. Fight dengue. Clean up.