Friday, September 08, 2006
Rise in dengue cases in Baguio ‘cyclical’: health office
By Rimaliza Opińa
THE Baguio City Health Office remained on a red alert status against dengue fever despite the reduced number of cases in Baguio in the past week.
City Health Officer Florence Reyes said although reports that came out on national television Wednesday night were a bit delayed, their office will not take any chances as the monitoring of cases continues and a campaign on the maintenance of cleanliness is regularly done.
Dengue fever is classified as a re-emerging disease, she said, and explained that an increase in the number of cases occurs every two or three years.
The central office of the Department of Health (DOH) earlier declared the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) as one of the regions that is under a tight watch, following the increase of cases. There are 1,067 cases in the region for the period from January 1 to August 26 this year with Baguio having the most number of 595 cases with one death reported.
Aside from those reported in Baguio, Benguet has 276 cases, Kalinga has 72, Ifugao has 43, Abra has 25, Mountain Province has 22 and Apayao has one.
At the DOH Regional Health Unit, Dr. Amelita Pangilinan confirmed that that there is a cyclical increase in cases and that the highest increase was noted in 2003.
Pangilinan said the number of cases recorded this year is 66 percent higher than the cases last year. There were 665 cases in 2005.
(September 8, 2006 issue)
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