CEBU City health officials and three barangays will have to explain to the City Council next week why they continue to have deaths due to dengue, despite the funding and free treatment provided by City Hall.

Councilor Gerardo Carillo said the circumstances of the deaths reported in Barangays Labangon, Mambaling and Talamban will have to be tackled thoroughly to find out where the City Health Department (CHD) and the barangay officials failed in preventing the deaths.

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The three recent deaths in Cebu City due to dengue were reported by Labangon, which has three deaths since January, and Mambaling and Talamban, with one death each.

As of July 7, the CHD recorded a total of 431 dengue cases and 11 deaths, which councilors said is a more alarming scenario compared to the Influenza A H1N1 cases reported in Cebu.

Alarm

“We have no death due to A(H1N1) yet but we’ve already had 11 deaths because of dengue and this should be a cause for alarm. Maybe there are things that we need to do other than what we have already done... The problem seems to be that people don’t know about the special funding for dengue and the fast lane for dengue patients,” Councilor Arsenio Pacaña said during their session last Wednesday.

Some councilors wondered why there are still residents dying of dengue, when the City has already allocated funds for free blood testing and treatment of dengue fever in the barangay health centers and at the city hospital.

Activities

They raised the need for more information dissemination activities, in case the residents are not aware of the free health services for dengue patients.

“The CHD should explain why deaths continue to occur despite our anti-dengue programs and the funds spent to prevent dengue. It could also be that the barangays
failed to monitor these areas, or they reported the incidents belatedly or the patients were not attended to immediately at the hospital,” Carillo said.

The council agreed to invite the officials of the three barangays and the CHD to explain why they were not able to prevent the deaths, as well as the spread of dengue in their respective barangays.

Carillo, action officer of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council, also wants the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) to set up in a more visible area the dengue fast lane in the city hospital, after observing that it is no longer there.