9 Jenilou de Jesus EEC: Persuasive Essay

11 – St. Camilla October 14, 2019

Prevention Over Cure: An Advocacy to Deter Dengue
Did you know that the Department of Health already declared a National Dengue
Epidemic in our country? As of January 2019, cases of dengue reportedly exceeded 270,000 and
more than 1,100 people have died. Drastic and continuous increase of these cases puts millions
of people’s health at risk which requires us to take preventive measures against the outbreak.
Our country is now facing difficulty due to the recent dengue outbreak. Most of the
citizens cannot afford the treatment and also, we are in dire need of more hospitals to cater
individuals who are diagnosed with dengue. The rapid increase of these cases and deaths alarms
both the government and citizens because compared to last year's cases, it went up significantly
high. From the month of January to July, there has been a 98% upsurge which contributed in
declaring the National Dengue Epidemic in our country. Each of us are at risk of acquiring this
disease however, children and teenagers are more susceptible that is why we should monitor and
sanitize starting from the people's houses including schools and public places to prevent further
cases of dengue. Dengue mosquitos could almost be everywhere and our work and public places
have the tendency to become their breeding grounds.
Lots of news reports show how those people diagnosed with dengue struggled for their
life and how they refrained from going to school, work and even from their regular activities for
months just to recover. They also showed how their families suffered from constant worrying
and their stories about working harder and asking for help just to pay their family member’s
medicines and hospital fees. Because of this, we should always remember that everyone is at risk
and we should not feel relaxed just because children and teenagers are more vulnerable, at any
age we can be diagnosed with dengue.
By this, our team wants to raise awareness and propose effective and efficient methods to
prevent the citizens from acquiring the said disease. Since the safety of children and teenagers
are at a higher risk, we want to target schools and institutions. Aside from their houses, these
individuals spend their time mostly at school that is why we want to request schools to perform
mosquito fogging operations to kill dengue mosquitos making these places as safe as possible.
We also want to ask schools to relay important information about this disease to their students so
they could all be aware and well-informed of what is happening around them.
Preventive measures are a must but it is not just only for dengue. It can help us improve
our hygiene which could help us lessen the risk of acquiring other diseases. Let us all start
preventive measures within ourselves until we can help the people around us and our
environment as well. We do not know when these cases will decrease and when the declaration
of National Dengue Epidemic will be lifted so until then, we request each and everyone to focus
on our hygiene and the cleanliness of our environment. Let’s all be alert and aware of our
surroundings because as John Colombo said, “A milligram of prevention is worth a kilogram of
cure.