A Japanese pharmaceutical company with pending application for dengue vaccine before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) initiated a collaboration with another firm to promote awareness on dengue fever in the country after the Philippines ranked first among the countries in Southeast Asia with highest number of cases in 2024.

In a ceremony at the Diamond Hotel in Manila on Thursday, Takeda Healthcare Philippines, Inc. led by its Country Manager Loreanne Villanueva and Otsuka-Solar Philippines, Inc. headed by its President and Managing Director Ken Saito signed on Thursday a memorandum agreement (MOU) which represents a strategic partnership aimed at amplifying efforts to prevent, control and manage dengue infection in the country.

Villanueva said under the MOU the two Japanese companies will integrate their expertise and resources to empower communities through disease education and awareness campaigns anchored on the integrated dengue prevention and control approach by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the 5S strategy by the Department of Health (DOH).

"Part of the collaboration that we have with Otsuka is we are going to several communities with high incidence of dengue, where we will offer our services in terms of raising awareness about dengue prevention and also promoting the Department of Health strategy on 5S. 5S stands for search and destroy, which is really managing vector mosquitoes," she said

"It's also about seeking early consultation. It's also about self-protection, making sure that you wear long sleeves. The other two components are about supporting fogging, where it's possible, and also supporting hydration," she added.

''I hope more Japanese companies can also follow and join our coaltion so that together we can amplify the impact of what we are doing,'' said Villanueva,

Villanueva said they also envision a series of initiatives where they are going to train the barangay health workers.

"It's very important for them to understand and educate the public about the importance of managing the symptoms as early as possible," she said.

Villanueva said the planning for the conduct of an awareness campaign is scheduled to start next week.

"The priority areas we're going to conduct the awareness campaigns will be those areas who have declared a state of calamity in 2024.So those are the communities who are badly in need of help because they have the highest cases," she added.

Former DOH spokesman who is a founding member of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination, Enrique Tayag said the Philippines reported a total of 340,860 dengue cases in 2024 highest that Indonesia with 202,012 cases and Malaysia with 106,773 cases.

"In the region the Philippines reported the most number of cases last year, followed by Indonesia and Malaysia. It's a high burden," he said.

Villanueva said the dengue cases increased to about 81 percent in 2024 compared to 2023.

"It's actually causing the government high costs. Based on the field health statistics, it's actually causing the Philippine government more than 3.5 billion pesos every year," she said.

Tayag also expressed hopes that aside from the partnership of the two Japanese companies, the Philippines will have the Takeda dengue vaccines whose application is still pending before the FDA since it was submitted in 2023.

"It's already available in 48 countries. There are others who are trying to create. However, the Takeda vaccine is the first one that can be used and the World Health Organization already has a recommendation. It's two doses, three months apart," he said.

Tayag said a lot of Filipinos are anti-vaxxers not just because of the Dengvaxia issue that caused fear against dengue vaccines but also because of the spread of fake news.

"It's not just the Dengue vaccine, there are other vaccines that are affected because there are a lot of anti-vaxxers due to misinformations," he said. Robina Asido/DMS