Monday, October 08, 2007 Dengue alarming in Oro: councilor By Lizanilla J. Amarga
THE Cagayan de Oro City Council committee on health, sanitation and social services led by Councilor Dante Pajo voiced his alarm over the dengue cases in the city.
In a special report during the regular session, the councilor said though there are still no accurate figures or statistics as to how many have died from or have become ill with of dengue, the disease has become prevalent these past few weeks.
"Yes, for me it is already alarming here in the city," he said.
Just last Thursday, the Department of Health in Manila also voiced alarm over the dengue incidents in the city as already reaching an all-time high.
Pajo moved that all measures should be exhausted to combat dengue down to every family unit in every barangay in the city.
"We are now asking our barangay officers and all other health and sanitation workers to help us in our endeavor not to give dengue-carrying mosquitoes a chance to thrive in our barangays," he said in the dialect.
Dengue is an acute, infectious, tropical disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain. It is also called breakbone fever and dandy fever.
Pajo said the first step would be to intensify the information drive and to further remind the public to maintain a clean environment to avoid this disease.
He asks the public to help contain this disease by means of a cleanup campaign to destroy mosquito-breeding sites.
Destroying mosquito-breeding sites entails cleaning and removing of containers that collect water; burning, burying of containers and covering of water vats, drums, and buckets; and washing water containers at least once a week.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," he said.
The Department of Health (DOH) 10 has already come out with statements regarding how the months of June to August even up to November are considered the most problematic.
Persistent rains in these months provide numerous breeding areas for the mosquito that carries the virus.
Pajo's motion urging all barangay officers to intensify the implementation ofanti-dengue measures in their respective areas of responsibility was unanimously approved by the other councilors.
