THE Department of Health (DOH) yesterday thumbed down the use of frogs and fish in efforts to eliminate dengue-carrying mosquitoes in communities.
“Scientific solutions will solve complex problems like dengue. Releasing invasive species of frogs and fish is not the scientific solution,” said the DOH in a joint statement with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“To do so would risk human health, and may also destroy ecological balance leading to other worse problems in the natural environment, like issues in food supply,” said the agencies.
They reiterated that the main solution is to destroy mosquito breeding sites.
The DOH, DILG, and DENR issued the statement after a barangay in Quezon City recently released hundreds of frogs to help in the anti-dengue campaign of the local government unit.
Back in 2019, a barangay in Pangasinan released thousands of fish stocks were released in the stagnant waters as part of the anti-dengue drive.
As of July 2, 65,190 dengue cases have been reported nationwide. It was 83 percent higher compared to the number of dengue cases recorded during the same period last year, which was at 35,715.
