Vanishing Frogs Can Defeat Dengue

Vanishing Frogs Can Defeat Dengue

By Michael A. Bengwayan:

Horan Dignay (not his real name) and five other kids played like any other kid in the neighbourhood’s mud pool last year. They went home soaked but ecstatic. That night fever set in on all six kids.

After a week they succumbed in a Philippine hospital north of Manila. The Department of Health and the Baguio General Hospital   blamed dengue  for their untimely deaths.

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Last year, almost 60,000  cases  were reported  in the Philippines, more than 50 of which were fatalities in Benguet province, north Philippines, the National Epidemiology Center of the Philippines' Department of Health said.

This year, despite the availability of dengue vaccine, dengue cases are up by 36 percent,  the government’s health department warned. http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/07/21/1605081/philippine-dengue-cases-36

The Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Bureau recorded a total of 57,026 dengue cases from January to June 25 this year, which is way above the 42,026 cases posted during the same period a year ago.

Dengue is a tropical disease caused by a virus of the mosquito Aedes Aegypti. It is characterized by high fever, headache, rashes, and severe joint and muscle pains. Extreme cases result to bleeding and death of the victim.

As the rainy season hovers, and the temperature going up, dengue once again rears its ugly head[E5] . The carrier of the deadly virus, Aedes egypti, is multiplying by the thousands.

And something man has taken for granted and have killed, maybe the only answer:frogs.

The province of Benguet doesn’t intend to lose any person again due to the disease, thus Benguet State University (BSU) has scientists working to counter the growing dengue threat.

They are bringing back the frogs which used to abound in the land with the communities’ help.

Dr. Luciana Villanueva, BSU’s vice president for research and extension pointed out to this writer, “We have no other recourse but to turn back to nature for help. The frogs are our most effective allies in the fight against the fearsome Aedes egypti mosquito.”

“We are rallying communities not to kill the frogs by not using insecticides for the fourth successive year and positive results are showing,” she added.

Villanueva informed that BSU team encourage locals to make ponds for frogs to naturally set in. They are also distributing pairs of male and female frogs to farmers and hobbyists.

Villanueva led scientists, community leaders, citizens and students last April 30 to celebrate and strengthen the annual International Save the Frogs Day which coincided with Earth Day.

BSU has set up a very large frog pond to increase frog population. “The population of frogs in the Philippines has decreased because of pesticides that destroyed large tracts of frog habitat”, she stressed.

“It must be brought back by urging communities to care for the remaining frogs, maintain a clean environment and through the passage and implementation of strict frog conservation laws,” Villanueva hoped as many students exhibited several ways in saving the frogs through posters, essays, poems, slogans, video and graphic illustrations.

Saving the Frogs an Uphill Climb

“Many communities now realize they have to be a part of nature and not apart from it to exist today given all the diseases and ailments that are occurring,” Dr. Grace Taguba Bengwayan, the project advocate told this writer while observing the large crowd that participated in the International Save the Frogs Day.

“But it will be a long fight to bring back the once-plentiful frog population,” she lamented.

Dr. Bengwayan’s statement stems from another scientist’s discovery that not only frogs but all the amphibian population in the Philippines is on the verge of being wiped out.

Philippines’ amphibian specialist, Dr. Letecia Afuang, said the Philippine amphibian population have drastically gone down in the past twenty years.

Afuang, a professor at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos (UPLB) and in charge of the assessment of conservation status of Philippines amphibians said that there is a lack of awareness in the broader Filipino community of Philippines amphibians and their relevance, leading to the destruction of the creatures.

She noted with approval the efforts being launched by BSU and the communities around it in saving the frogs, but equally warned there is grave danger of an outbreak of diseases in other places in the Philippines where many amphibians and reptiles are becoming extinct.

This is because the population of disease-transmitting insects and vectors is increasing and spreading while their traditional predators are dwindling in number.

“As a result, mosquitoes, including the malaria-transmitting Anopheles and the deadly dengue-causing Aedes Aegypti, are multiplying in great numbers further endangering the health of thousands of not only Filipinos but Asians,” Afuang said.

The highly proactive Cordillera Ecological Center (CEC) based in the province on the other hand said through a statement released on April 30 celebrating Earth Day that the issue of Aedes egypti mosquito population increasing is due to global warming.

CEC stated “Dengue epidemics in the Philippines occur annually in the later half of the year following onset of rainfall and increasing temperature.  It becomes more pronounced on El Niño periods.”

“It is then important to have a moving average temperature (MAT) index yearly so that it becomes a signal or early warning device to the public  that dengue will not only be a possibility but  will be widespread in nature,” CEC explained.

The CEC won the World Bank Environmental Award earlier for being able to determine the onset and spread of dengue-carrying mosquitoes by studying temperature increases.

“The rise of temperature favors disease-carrying insects while equally threatening beneficial small wildlife like amphibians and reptiles that prey on insect pests. For instance, four frogs are now extinct in Benguet and in other parts of the country. Global warming and chemicals have destroyed their habitats,” CEC emphasized.

The Declining Amphibian Population Task Force (DAPTF) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) supports CEC’s revelation, saying ionizing radiation of ultraviolet B resulting from ozone layer depletion has something to do with the decline of amphibian population.

The decline of amphibian population, while worldwide, is overly evident in the Philippines . IUCN named the Philippines as one of the world’s top twenty biodiversity hotspots because of numerous extinct and vanishing living species.

And if the frogs aren’t saved, they may just end up in the long list of IUCN’s Red Handbook.