Dengue drops in Cebu City to 2 cases per 1T persons

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

THIRTEEN patients, all of them children, died of dengue fever last year and at least 1,680 others were hospitalized due to the dengue virus.

According to the Dengue Fever Surveillance 2011 Report of the Cebu City Health Department (CHD), the fatalities were aged six months to 13 years old and resided in Barangays Talamban, Tisa, Labangon, Budlaan, Pasil, Kamputhaw, Punta Princesa, Sawang Calero, Apas, Cogon Pardo, Mambaling and Hipodromo.

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Assistant City Epidemiologist Durinda Macasocol said the number of deaths last year is fewer compared to the 19 deaths recorded by the CHD in the previous year.

The number of dengue fever cases last year is also fewer, some 45 percent lower than the 3,035 cases reported in 2010.

With the number of cases and deaths recorded last year, the incidence rate for dengue in Cebu City is 1.8 for every 1,000 residents, the report said.

The patients’ age ranged from two months to 79 years old, and 50 percent of those affected are males.

As in previous years, Guadalupe had the most number of dengue cases with 121, followed by Labangon with 104 cases, Basak San Nicolas with 92 cases, Tisa with 77 cases, and Lahug with 74 cases.

Macasocol attributed the decline in the number of cases to the preventive measures that government and non-government institutions implemented, such as the use of larvicide in barangays that had confirmed cases of dengue.

Forty barangays benefited from the distribution of insect growth regulator granules initiated by Dr. Wyben Briones and other volunteers last year.

Six public schools also received impregnated nets, the chemically treated nets used as curtains in schools, which kill mosquitoes.

“The activities we have undertaken proved to be effective in fighting dengue so we will continue that next year. In the schools that are already using the impregnated nets, the number of dengue cases reduced so we will continue doing that,” Macasocol told Sun.Star Cebu.

This year, she added, the City Government will conduct a massive “larviciding,” this time covering all 80 barangays in the city.

More public schools will also be given impregnated nets as a way of preventing the spread of the dengue virus in schools. Public schools that now use impregnated nets as curtains are those in Barangays Guadalupe, Mabolo, Talamban, Inayawan and Pardo.

Last Monday, the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) reported a suspected case of dengue.

The child, a resident of Barangay Pahina Central, the same barangay where CCMC is located, died Monday night.

“It’s not confirmed that it’s dengue, they are still investigating it. But once that is confirmed, then it would be the first dengue death for this year,” Macasocol said.