Saturday, July 28, 2007 Dengue fever downs 678 in Caraga Region By Ben Serrano Caraga Correspondent
BUTUAN CITY -- At least 678 persons, most of them minors, reportedly fell ill and got confined at sentinel hospitals in three cities and four provinces of Caraga Region, the Department of Health (DOH) Caraga Regional Office said.
Hard hit are two provinces and one city -- Butuan City with 173 cases, Surigao del Sur, 175 cases, and Agusan del Norte with 84 cases, according to official records obtained from the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu) office of the DOH regional office.
Surigao City has 38 cases of dengue, Bislig City has 18, while Surigao del Norte has 30 cases.
But the same office said they still have to further evaluate reports on the number of deaths inflicted by dengue, said Sheryll Plaza of the Resu office.
Plaza explained that it will be Resu Office chief Dr. Jerna May-as Manatad who will release the data.
Manatad is reportedly in Tandag City monitoring other diseases.
Plaza said the reported dengue cases are from January 2007 to June 14, 2007 alone.
But official records from Resu stated that from June 8 to 14, 2007 alone, there were 13 persons who got sick because of dengue.
All three are confined in different hospitals here in the city, the DOH said.
Plaza added that the 678 cases of dengue that was reported only come from reports of 18 DOH sentinel hospitals in the region.
"We haven't scoured individual houses in different barangays all over the region. What was reflected in the report are only reports from our sentinel hospitals," Plaza clarified.
The record also showed an increase of dengue cases this year as compared to last year in the same period.
