Philippines health officials have reported 33,748 suspected cases of dengue through the first three months of 2016, up from 24,927 cases reported during the same period in 2015.
In addition, 126 dengue related fatalities have been reported.
In 2015, health officials on the archipelago saw in excess of 200,000 cases and 600 deaths.
This comes as the number of children vaccinated against dengue reaches 263,000, with the newly approved vaccine Dengvaxia, with a goal to get one million children immunized against dengue by June.
In the past 50 years, the incidence of dengue worldwide has increased 30-fold, largely as a consequence of the growth of cities and increased travel.
According to a 2013 WHO report between 1955 and 1959, the number of countries reporting cases of dengue increased from three to eight; in 2012, the geographical distribution of dengue included more than 125 countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there may be 50–100 million dengue infections worldwide every year. However,there was 2013 research from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust, using cartographic approaches, estimate there to be 390 million dengue infections per year worldwide.
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