Friday, August 12, 2005
Most dengue cases listed in Lahug
Cebu City has the highest ratio of deaths among dengue victims in the country, said Enrique Tayag, director of the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health (DOH).
Among 67 affected barangays, most of the reported cases are clustered in Lahug, Tisa and Guadalupe. Cebu City has 80 barangays.
He said solving the problem is three-pronged: elimination of breeding sites, prevention of bites, and prompt detection and immediate treatment.
Tayag said outbreaks have been reported in Zamboanga City, Nueva Ecija and Quezon City, which are now under control.
He said Cebu City caught their attention because the mortality rate among dengue victims is the highest in the country.
As of yesterday, the City Health Department recorded 19 out of 685 dengue victims have already died, or a mortality rate of three deaths per 100 cases of dengue. Last year, there were seven deaths out of 937 cases recorded.
Tayag discouraged fogging and even the use of the newly purchased mist-sprayers, which he said use insecticides that kill adult mosquitoes but not the larvae.
The procedure also just drives away the mosquitoes to areas where there was no dengue before.
Express lane
Acting DOH 7 Director Dr. Susana Madarieta told Sun.Star Cebu that the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has initiated their own express lane for dengue patients from Cebu province who need immediate assistance.
VSMMC has already handled 685 dengue cases this year, prompting the hospital to seek additional help, such as more nurses to be stationed at the emergency room.
Central Visayas has a total number of 1,453 dengue cases, which ranks the region third in the country as of Aug. 6.
The City Health Department, under Dr. Fe Cabugao, monitors dengue cases in Cebu City and comes up with weekly surveillance reports.
To explain the high mortality rate in Cebu City, Tayag said the dengue strain in the city could be more virulent or dangerous, or that clinical treatment in other places are far better than here in Cebu.
Search and destroy
Tayag, who talked before Cebu City councilors yesterday, said that to eliminate dengue, the community must “search and destroy” breeding sites such as stagnant water in drums, empty bottles, tires and drains.
The dengue virus is carried by female striped mosquitoes, or those that bite only after 10 a.m. and before night comes, he said. The Aedis egypti mosquitoes only hatch in clean water and could produce 400 larvae per hatching.
Emerlinda Abadiano, president of the National Confederation of Barangay Health Workers of the Philippines Inc., said she has tasked barangay health workers in the city to conduct seminars to prevent dengue.
However, barangay health workers in the city face a tough task, since there are only 375 of them, with each one expected to handle 100 households. The ideal ratio is one health worker per 20 households, Abadiano said.
Yesterday, in his press conference, Mayor Tomas Osmeña criticized barangay officials because they are “not accustomed to do a house-to-house inspection”.
“They think when there is dengue their responsibility is to solicit for blood donations or raise funds,” he said.
Banana plants
The mayor said that one of the most effective ways is to look for stagnant water. A common place is under one’s refrigerator.
He also suggested that used tires should be placed indoors because once they are filled up, the water is very difficult to drain because there is always little water left inside “where mosquitoes can thrive.”
He also proposed that banana plants be cut so they will not serve as breeding site of mosquitoes. He proposed that the City should pay for the bananas just so they will be cut down.
“I will almost guarantee that doing those three things alone will cause a drop in the number of dengue cases in the City. I will talk to the City health office to establish a monitoring system on this in the barangays,” the mayor said.
He lauded the transparent reporting of dengue cases, adding that although it might be a cause for alarm, it shows the problem is being carefully monitored so that appropriate counter-measures could be taken. (RHM/LLV/JGA)
(August 12, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
