Friday, January 26, 2007 Poor residents feeling brunt of dengue costs By Ben Serrano Caraga Correspondent
BAYUGAN, Agusan del Norte -- While indigent relatives of dengue victims were complaining against the "no deposit, no admittance" policies of most private hospitals in Caraga Region, some doctors and hospital owners admit that treatment for dengue fever is getting expensive.
Local authorities here have declared an outbreak of dengue fever that already killed five persons mostly infants and children.
Former Agusan del Sur Representative Dr. Alex Bascug and his wife, Dra. Felicidad Bascug, owners of New Bayugan Medical Hospital, claimed that a wealthy parent of a dengue victim from this town spent more than P1 million recently after bringing their child in Davao City for treatment.
Andrea Santiago, mother of six-month-old dengue casualty, Aira Nicole, said they spent P67,000 in one day alone when they tried to bring her ailing daughter to Cagayan de Oro City at the Madonna Child Hospital.
Madonna Child hospital is said to be the only private hospital with a medical specialist and blood platelets separator that can effectively cure dengue.
Aira Nicole died of hemorrhagic dengue while boarding an ambulance on the way to Cagayan de Oro City last January 17, 2007.
Santiago said like other dengue victims she brought her ailing daughter to M.J. Santos Hospital in Butuan City whose physicians have recommended immediately of bringing her daughter to Cagayan de Oro City.
Bayugan resident, Leonida Mata, grandmother of seven-month-old dengue casualty, Mae Agustin, said she spent P70,000 for dengue treatment for her granddaughter.
Mata, a businesswoman, claimed she could not imagine how ordinary parents of dengue victims cope up with expensive treatment for their child affected with dengue fever.
"If I who had some money find it difficult how much more those who have none, mostly farmers are affected by dengue?" Mata said.
While the Bayugan Municipal Health Office has two medical doctors, its function and capabilities are only confined to health maintenance prevention and information dissemination.
Most dengue infections result in relatively mild illness, but some can progress to dengue hemorrhagic fever.
With dengue hemorrhagic fever, the blood vessels start to leak and cause bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums.
Bruising can be a sign of bleeding inside the body. Without prompt treatment, the blood vessels can collapse, causing shock or dengue shock syndrome. Dengue hemorrhagic fever is fatal.
