Friday, January 11, 2008 Dengue map drafted to trace breeding sites
SO health officials can be better guided in fighting the dengue virus, the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council (CCDCC) came up with a geographical map that shows the specific areas that have dengue fever cases.
The color-coded map specifies the areas that have a clustering of dengue cases and hotspots and shows the exact number of dengue cases in the different barangays in the city.
City Councilor Gerardo Carillo, CCDCC action officer, said the map will guide the City Health Department (CHD) in their anti-dengue activities.
“We can tag in the map the areas where there is an occurrence of dengue, the number of cases and the names of victims. If there is a high occurrence, then that would show them where the breeding sites are, and that should be the target of sanitary inspectors for their campaign,” he told reporters.
Entomological
The CCDCC presented the map during the City Council session last Wednesday after updating the councilors on the number of dengue cases.
From Jan. 1, 2007 to Jan. 9, 2008, a total of 2,107 dengue fever cases in Cebu City alone, 51 of which resulted in death.
While the map would help in the City’s anti-dengue campaign, Councilor Edgardo Labella said an entomological study should be conducted alongside the mapping of cases to be able to identify the exact location of breeding sites.
Labella said health officials should verify if the lagoon in Barangay Labangon is indeed the breeding site of dengue-carrying mosquitoes or if there are other possible breeding sites in the barangay.
The lagoon beside the Cebu Institute of Technology (CIT) campus was believed to be the breeding place of the mosquitoes in Labangon, which has the highest number of dengue cases in the city.
“I am not a health expert but I believe there is a more compelling need to conduct an entomological study, which is the study of insects... if the lagoon in Labangon is one of the critical areas, why is it that there are not too many cases in Duljo Fatima?” Labella asked his colleagues.
The lagoon is located near the boundary of Barangays Mambaling and Duljo Fatima.
The CCDCC tapped the expertise of the City’s Geographic Information System-Management Information and Computer Services (GIS-Mics) office for mapping areas affected by dengue using inter-related databases and three sets of computers dedicated solely for the project.
“This will assist in better tracking of mosquito breeding, outbreak measures and high-risk areas for more effective and timely response,” Carillo said of the mapping activity. (LCR)
