8th Asia Dengue Summit calls for unified action amid record global cases
The summit, themed 'Toward Zero Dengue Deaths: Science, Strategy, and Solidarity,' runs from June 15 to 18 at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria, bringing together more than 600 participants. Organized by the group Asia Dengue Voice and Action (ADVA), the event underscored the pressing need for regional collaboration, policy innovation, and strong community engagement to tackle the growing dengue crisis, particularly in Asia, which now bears 70% of the global dengue burden.
'This summit delivers a unifying message: dengue is preventable. With scientific innovation, the right strategies, and strong partnerships, achieving zero dengue deaths is possible,' said Dr. Ma. Rosario Z. Capeding, organizing chair of the summit, in her opening remarks. She also presented an overview of the dengue situation in the Philippines.
Co-chair Dr. Fatima I. Gimenez emphasized the country's potential to contribute to the regional fight. 'We can share our own achievements in this battle against dengue and be considered strong partners and powerful allies,' she said.
ADVA, through its Asia Dengue Policy Working Group, also launched a new white paper, 'Unlocking Progress: Dengue Policies and Opportunities in Asia.' The document urges countries to adopt more coordinated and accountable systems to better manage outbreaks and protect vulnerable populations.
For the Philippines, the paper recommends scaling up prevention strategies, including vaccination, and improving access to quality, guideline-based care, especially in underserved communities. It also highlights the need to counter misinformation and vaccine hesitancy through targeted communication and global cooperation.
'Government can't do this alone,' stressed Gimenez. 'The health workers, advocates, the public, and media—we are all in this together.'
One of the summit's highlights is the return of the Dengue Slayers Challenge, a regional youth innovation competition co-organized by ADVA and Junior Achievement. Now in its second year, the program challenged over 1,800 students from the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand to develop technological solutions for mosquito control and health monitoring.
From 492 teams, the best will present their ideas at the Asia Pacific Grand Finals in Manila on June 17. The competition promotes digital innovation, sustainability, and cross-border collaboration, empowering students to take an active role in shaping future dengue responses.
The summit also spotlighted DengCast, ADVA's official podcast platform dedicated to deepening public engagement and raising awareness on dengue through expert interviews and community-driven stories. Produced by ADVA:NexGen, DengCast shares insights from public health champions across Asia and invites new voices to join the conversation.
'This is more than a podcast. It's a growing movement to educate, engage, and empower people to act,' ADVA said in a statement.
As the dengue crisis escalates, the Asia Dengue Summit serves as a clarion call for action. With renewed commitment, innovative solutions, and inclusive partnerships, ADVA and its allies hope to turn the tide on one of Asia's most persistent public health threats—and move closer to a future where no one dies from dengue. — BM, GMA Integrated News
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AllAfrica
a few seconds ago
- AllAfrica
China fears Nvidia chips could track, trace and shut down its AIs
Beijing has asked Nvidia to explain whether its H20 artificial intelligence chips have backdoors that could allow the United States to position and remotely shut them down. Chinese pundits said similar probes could be extended to other American-made chips. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) stated on July 31 that it summoned US tech giant Nvidia over security risks related to its H20 AI chip, which had been sold to China. 'Nvidia's AI chips have been alleged to pose serious security risks, and some US lawmakers have called for advanced chips exported abroad to be equipped with 'tracking and positioning' functions,' said the CAC. The CAC said in a press release that American AI experts have confirmed that the 'tracking and positioning' and 'remote shutdown' technologies of Nvidia chips have matured. It requested that Nvidia explain and submit relevant proof materials regarding this issue. On the same day, Nvidia said its chips do not contain backdoors that would allow anyone to access or remotely control them. It said cybersecurity is critically important to the company. Beijing's summoning of Nvidia came after Reuters reported on July 29 that Nvidia had placed orders for 300,000 H20 chipsets (worth about US$3.6 billion) with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) a week earlier. It also followed the trade talks between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Sweden on July 28-29. In April, the US government stopped Nvidia from shipping its H20 products to China. When Republican US Senator Tom Cotton introduced the 'Chip Security Act' on May 9, the bill received little to no significant media attention at the time. The bill requires AI chips to be subject to export regulations and mandates that products containing these chips be equipped with location-tracking systems to aid in detecting diversion, smuggling or other unauthorized use. It received support from bipartisan lawmakers in the House of Representatives. 'As Congress's chip designer, AI programmer and PhD physicist, I know we have the technical tools to prevent powerful AI technology from getting into the wrong hands,' said Congressman Bill Foster. 'With advanced AI chips being smuggled into China and posing a national security risk, Congress must act.' Following meetings between US and Chinese officials in London on June 9, China agreed to resume shipments of rare earth minerals to the US. In return, the US agreed to allow Chinese firms to use its electronic design automation (EDA) software and resume the shipment of H20 chips and C919 flight engine parts to China. Some commentators said the strong demand for H20 from Chinese firms may hurt Huawei Technologies' Ascend AI chips' market share. Wang Xinxi, a columnist specializing in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector, says in an article that the Ascend 910B has already surpassed H20 in terms of computing power. He says Chinese technology firms still use the H20 only because of its higher bandwidth and software support on the CUDA platform. 'Although the US Congress has not yet passed the Chip Security Act, Nvidia may have already added location-tracking functions in its chips,' he writes. 'All Nvidia computing chips have private data areas where the data is encrypted, so it is technically possible to add a backdoor.' Citing Qihoo 360 Chairperson Zhou Hongyi's recent comments, Chen claims that malicious code can be implanted in a chip during the wafer manufacturing, packaging and testing processes. He says it's difficult for Chinese end-users to identify these unsafe products within the global supply chain, which involves numerous suppliers and distributors. 'If there is any security loophole, Chinese firms must stop using H20,' he adds. 'In the end, companies that use Chinese AI chips will win.' 'Imagine if such 'backdoor' probes were expanded to other major American chip manufacturers in China like Micron, Wall Street investors would quickly sell their semiconductor stocks,' Chen Kai, a Fujian-based writer, says in an article. 'The H20 under probes is a 'freak' from the beginning as it is the downgraded version of the H100,' he writes. 'The Trump administration thought China would thank the US for relaxing its chip export control, and it would easily obtain the Chinese rare earth. It did not expect Nvidia to face security probes.' In 2019, the US banned Huawei routers due to concerns about backdoors. The US Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List in May 2019. In May, Nvidia's Chief Executive Jensen Huang said that tracking massive AI servers or accelerators weighing several tons should not be difficult. However, he said, finding the AI chips after they are sold is impossible. Joseph Hoefer, a Washington, D.C.-based government relations strategist focused on AI, said the intent behind the Chip Security Act is understandable, but its approach creates more problems than it solves. 'First, real-time location tracking of chips is simply not feasible at scale,' Hoefer said. 'Attempting to derive meaningful national security insights from hardware geolocation data would require vast infrastructure, reliable international cooperation, and intensive verification protocols. That level of control does not exist in today's global tech ecosystem.' Secondly, he said, any system tracking chip locations would become an immediate cybersecurity vulnerability. Lastly, he said the compliance burden would fall on responsible US chip makers, which would have to spend time and money implementing unproven tracking systems, navigating regulatory ambiguity, and reporting false positives. Some IT experts have said that, technically, Nvidia can utilize its ecosystem of software and tools, such as the Nvidia Management Library (NVML) and Data Center GPU Manager (DCGM), to identify the locations of its AI chips, each of which has a unique serial number. It would be similar to what Google does to track and manage its AI chips. Google has centralized inventory and asset management systems that track every component, including custom chips such as Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), from manufacturing to deployment. Google's datacenter orchestration and resource management (Borg) can track the real-time performance of every chip. Others argue that even if a chip management software can determine the location of a suspicious AI chip cluster, it will be too late, as it means Chinese firms have already obtained and deployed the chips. Alphabet's Google has already started tracking the location of its in-house AI chips and others in its vast network of data centers for security purposes, Reuters reported on May 6, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Read: Chinese worry Nvidia H20 chips are poisoned wine for AI industry
Business Upturn
a few seconds ago
- Business Upturn
ABB India share: Motilal Oswal maintains buy, trims target to Rs 6000 citing QCO-related cost pressure
By Arunika Jain Published on August 5, 2025, 08:24 IST Motilal Oswal Financial Services has maintained its Buy rating on ABB India, but slashed the target price to ₹6000 from ₹6700. The brokerage flagged short-term challenges, including forex fluctuations, implementation-related costs of the new Quality Control Order (QCO), and weak ordering activity. While the second half of CY25 is seen as a recovery phase, MOSL has lowered its estimates by 15%, 8%, and 2% for CY25, CY26, and CY27, respectively, to reflect lower margin assumptions. At present, ABB India is trading at 63.7x/53.6x/45.6x CY25E/CY26E/CY27E earnings. The brokerage expects revenue, EBITDA, and PAT to grow at a CAGR of 14%, 19%, and 18%, respectively, over CY25–CY27. Despite near-term underperformance due to margin pressure and soft demand from private and government sectors, MOSL believes ABB has the potential to expand margins in the long run once QCO implementation stabilizes. A re-rating to higher valuation multiples will depend on clear visibility of order inflows and margin recovery. Disclaimer: The views and recommendations in this article are those of Motilal Oswal and do not represent the opinion of this publication. Investors are advised to consult their financial advisors before making any investment decisions. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Arunika Jain, a graduate in Mass Communication, brings a fresh perspective to the world of journalism. Arunika has a passion for writing finance and corporate news at You can write to her at [email protected]
Business Upturn
a few seconds ago
- Business Upturn
Newcastle send another bid to RB Leipzig for Benjamin Sesko
Newcastle United are desperate to get a striker's deal done before the window ends as their current No.9 Alexander Isak is looking for other options. By Ravi Kumar Jha Published on August 5, 2025, 08:22 IST Newcastle United are desperate to get a striker's deal done before the window ends as their current No.9 Alexander Isak is looking for other options. Isak who has already made up his mind of leaving is interested in joining Liverpool and also the club trying hard to get the deal done. However, Newcastle can only give green light when they get a new striker and they are fully focused on Benjamin Sesko. They are rivaling Manchester United for the striker. Despite sending the second bid of €90 million (package), they are not confident that the player will choose them. Man United hasn't send a bid yet as they are waiting for the player's approval first. Newcastle United are scrambling to finalise a striker signing before the summer transfer window closes, as their current No.9 Alexander Isak looks increasingly likely to leave the club. The Swedish forward has reportedly made up his mind about moving on, with Liverpool emerging as his preferred destination. Liverpool are pushing hard to get a deal over the line for Isak, who is seen as a long-term addition to their attacking options. However, Newcastle are unwilling to greenlight the transfer unless they secure a suitable replacement — and their top target is RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko. The Magpies are facing stiff competition from Manchester United for the Slovenian talent. Newcastle have already submitted a second bid worth €90 million (including add-ons), but there is uncertainty within the club about Šeško's willingness to join them. Ahmedabad Plane Crash Ravi kumar jha is an undergraduate student in Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia and Mass Communication. A media enthusiast who has a strong hold on communication and he also has a genuine interest in sports. Ravi is currently working as a journalist at
