DOH: No new dengue strain

MANILA, Philippines — Despite the rising cases of dengue in the country, the Department of Health (DOH) has ruled out news reports that a new strain of the mosquito-borne disease is in circulation.

In a statement, the DOH said contrary to news reports, “there are no mutant strains of dengue virus being monitored or reported in the Philippines.”

“The issue on the new strain of dengue virus circulated as a result of a misquoted DOH official. Neither the DOH official nor the Secretary of Health mentioned a new strain of dengue virus,” the statement said.

In an earlier interview, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo noted that there are four strains of dengue.

He said DENV-1 and DENV-2 were the ones commonly circulating in past years.

However, the “predominant strain” for 2019 is DENV-3, which means that more people can acquire it because only few have immunity.

“Those who got infected with Dengue 1 and 2 acquired lifetime immunity from these types of strains. Now that Dengue 3 is predominant, many people are not immune to it so we see many cases,” Domingo said.

Compared to the other strains, DENV-3 is less virulent as evidenced by DOH reports that of the 167,606 cases recorded from Jan. 1 to July 27, only 661 resulted in death.

The statement also said that DENV-3 and DENV-4 caused the usual symptoms of fever, muscle pains, headache, loss of appetite, vomiting and diarrhea.

On the other hand, DENV-1 causes pain behind the eyes while DENV-2 is more associated with the symptoms of nose bleeding and blood-streaked vomiting.