Saturday, October 13, 2007 Central Visayas number 2 in dengue RP-wide By Jujemay G. Awit & Garry Cabotaje Sun.Star Staff Reporters
CENTRAL Visayas has the second highest number of dengue cases in the country.
Department of Health (DOH) 7 Assistant Director Lakshmi Legaspi told Sun.Star Cebu the region is just behind the National Capital Region in the list of areas with the most number of dengue cases.
In the list of cities, Cebu City also ranked second to Manila.
Hopefully, Cebu City and Central Visayas will never reach the top spot, said Rennan Cimafranca of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu) 7 in a television interview.
The National Epidemiology Center (NEC) of the DOH has issued a nationwide alert against dengue hemorrhagic fever especially during the rainy months of September and October.
Dengue epidemics came into the Southeast Asian scene in the 1950s, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) reported in its website. By 1975, it had become the primary cause of death among children in the region.
Last year, the Philippines topped in Southeast Asia as the country with the most number of dengue cases, DOST reported, quoting a World Health Organization report.
Rising
The Philippines recorded 21,537 dengue cases and 280 deaths from January to October last year.
The dengue alert was issued after more than 4,000 dengue cases were reported throughout the country as of the second week of September, bringing a total 24,689 cases of the mosquito-borne disease since January. There are already 283 deaths.
Cebu City’s 73 out of 80 barangays have already been affected by the dengue virus. A total of 1,000 individuals, mostly children aged six to 10 years old, were infected.
There have also been 25 deaths recorded in Cebu City from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30.
Cebu City tops Central Visayas with the most number of dengue cases.
It is now under a state of calamity, with the City Council appropriating P5 million to fund laboratory tests and medicines that will be given to dengue patients for free.
Meanwhile, Talisay City declared itself dengue-free despite the reported three new cases in Barangay Bulacao.
Councilor Serrie Restauro attributed the City’s intensified anti-dengue operations as the main factor that its task force managed to prevent the dengue outbreak in the 22 barangays.
“We’re conducting our operations in at least three or four barangays per day. That made a big difference in our campaign and I can say that we’re still dengue-free,” the councilor said.
Mist
Restauro, an eye, ear, nose and throat doctor, also attributed the City’s low incidence of dengue to the acquisition of a German-made mist-blower machine, which he described as very effective in getting rid of the dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Restauro vowed to prioritize Barangay Bulacao after the City’s annual fiesta on Monday, in the wake of a report of three new dengue cases in the area.
Of the three dengue victims, one of them is reportedly a grade 3 pupil and a resident of Sitio Maharlika Village. The child has already been declared out of danger.
Bulacao Barangay Captain Sedronico Olandag believed that the dengue-carrying mosquitoes had spread to their village from neighboring Barangay Bulacao in Cebu City.
Bulacao has been considered one of the barangays with the most number of dengue cases in Cebu City.
Restauro earlier said Talisay health authorities had inadvertently included two or three dengue cases when these actually occurred in Bulacao, Cebu City.
Meanwhile, Restauro downplayed a report that the lambda cyhylothrin, the liquid chemical of the mist-blower machine, is harmful to humans.
The councilor insisted that the chemical, although lethal to crawling and flying insects, is safe and risk-free to humans, animals and plants.
He said the chemical has been approved by the WHO and the Bureau of Food and Drugs.
Since last year, Talisay City Hall has been using the mist-blower machine instead of adopting traditional fogging operations.
But despite efforts of local government units, like Talisay, the total number of dengue cases in Central Visayas from Jan. 1 to Sept. 29 this year already reached 3,420, according to the Resu 7. There were also 86 deaths.
In the same period last year, there were only 2,316 cases, which is 48.1 percent less, and 51 deaths. (JGA/GC)
