Thursday, October 18, 2007 No area dengue-free, DOH 7 warns
THERE is no such thing as a dengue-free area.
A health official yesterday warned local governments against thinking their areas are already “dengue-free.”
“No area can be considered dengue-free. Maybe they just have controlled the number of cases,” said Department of Health (DOH) 7 Director Susana Madarieta.
Last Friday, Talisay City, through Councilor Sergio Restauro, declared the city as dengue-free.
Restauro said the City’s intensified anti-dengue operations prevented a dengue outbreak in 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 Restauro said.
Other Asian countries are also having problems with dengue.
According to the World Health Organization, even Singapore, which did not have a single case of dengue last year, reported victims of dengue hemorrhagic fever this year.
Since January this year and until last Oct. 13, Central Visayas recorded 3,660 dengue cases. This is 48 percent higher compared with the same period last year.
There were also 92 deaths recorded, which is 2.5 percent of the total number of cases.
Madarieta said that the national cut-off for case-fatality rate in the country is less than two percent.
Central Visayas is second in the country with the most number of dengue cases, following National Capital Region.
Cebu City also ranks second among cities with the highest number of victims, tailing Manila.
Number of cases
But Madarieta said the ranking of Cebu and Central Visayas could be because this was based on number of cases, and our population is high.
“We did not get the percentage, but if we do, it would only reflect less than one percent of the entire population,” said Ma-darieta.
Cebu City remains at the top of the list of the number of dengue cases in Central Visayas, with 25 percent of the total number.
There were 914 dengue cases in Cebu City, with 24 deaths, according to the latest record of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit.
It showed an increase of close to 50 percent compared to the same period last year, which recorded 487 dengue cases and only 16 deaths for Cebu City. Minglanilla follows with 318 dengue cases and nine deaths.
As for Talisay City, the area recorded 184 dengue cases and eight deaths, ranking fifth among the areas with the most number of dengue cases in the region. (JGA)
