Wednesday, January 09, 2008 Wenceslao: Study on the city’s dengue problem By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
I DON'T blame Cebu City Councilor Gerardo Carillo and his team for playing up the draining of the lagoon in Bugnay Dos, Barangay Labangon like it is already a milestone in the fight against dengue fever. The money and energy poured into the effort, though the method at times became laughable, was no joke, thus the need for recognition.
That should not take anything away from the fact, however, that the premise was wrong. City Hall still has to establish with certainty that the lagoon was a breeding place of Aedes aegypti mosquito. Thus, Carillo’s conclusion that the draining of the lagoon will have a significant impact in terms of dengue fever incidents in Labangon may be faulty.
The need to point this out is important because Carillo’s claim may spark complacency among barangay officials and residents in Labangon and in other places where lagoons exist. In this regard, Councilor Edgar Labella’s push for a more scientific approach to the fight against dengue (like conducting studies first) should be supported.
Incidentally, I met last week Dr. Milagros Mahilum-Grief, who has been sending articles to Sun.Star to enlighten the public on the dengue scourge.
Her study titled, “Evaluation of the present dengue situation and control strategies against Aedes aegypti in Cebu City, Philippines,” was published by the Journal of Vector Ecology in 2005.
The study evaluated the dengue situation and methods to control Aedes aegypti larvae in the city. It included detection of dengue infection among Filipino patients, surveying mosquito breeding sites to determine Aedes aegypti larval population density and evaluation of public knowledge, attitude and personal protection practices against dengue.
I understand Mahilum-Grief is scheduled to talk with Vice Mayor Michael Rama, who I know is open-minded. One point she was adamant about when we talked was about the lagoon that Carillo’s group continued to insist was a breeding place of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Aedes aegypti breeds in clear and stagnant water, she said.
The wriggling mosquito larvae that the City Anti-Dengue Task Force saw when its members visited the lagoon last Saturday was more probably not Aedes aegypti, the main carrier of dengue, but culex pipiens complex, which Mahilum-Grief said is the carrier of the elephantiasis virus. Or the mosquitoes there can be nothing but nuisance.
Which means that even if the lagoon has been drained, the Task Force and barangay officials should intensify community-based programs against dengue, which should zero in on the real breeding places of Aedes aegypti larvae. In Mahilum-Grief’s study, discarded tires and discarded plastic containers had the highest rate of infestation.
What is interesting was the survey conducted on some households that showed that while 68.7 percent of the interviewees were aware that dengue is transmitted by mosquitoes, only 4.3 percent knew that a virus was the cause. This fragmentary knowledge appears to be one of the reasons why people do not follow the instructions to reduce mosquito-breeding sites, the study noted.
Frankly, the aggressiveness of Mahilum-Grief on the issue earlier on irritated me. But one who viewed the problem up close will always end up being passionate about the matter. You can e-mail her at dr.milagros_mahilum@daad-alumni.de or call her at 0929-4608168.
