Friday, February 22, 2008 DOH official lauds Cebu City measure By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City will be the first local government unit (LGU) in the country to legislate dengue prevention at the barangay level if it approves Barangay Labangon’s ordinance, a health official said.
Department of Health (DOH) Undersecretary Jade del Mundo said yesterday that the measure will be effective in preventing the spread of dengue, but he can’t say the same thing about the massive spraying of insecticides that City Hall is planning to do.
For del Mundo, a cleanliness drive and the elimination of breeding sites of dengue-carrying mosquitoes are still the most effective ways of preventing the spread of the virus.
Barangay Labangon plans to do just that by passing an ordinance that will fine residents P500 if they refuse to clean their surroundings.
The ordinance has yet to be referred to the City Council for approval.
City Hall, for its part, will begin a massive spraying of insectides in all 80 barangays in the city.
But del Mundo said there is no scientific evidence yet that proves the efficacy of insecticide sprays in killing dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
“These insecticides are organic, water-based chemicals that supposedly kill the larva. It’s not harmful to human beings but it has not yet been scientifically proven or there’s no evidence to prove its efficacy,” he told reporters yesterday.
Cost effective
The official said, though, that DOH Manila is experimenting on the use of the chemical in different areas plagued by dengue.
Once it is proven to be effective, del Mundo said they will recommend its use to the LGUs.
“But right now we’re not recommending it yet because we are still compiling data on how effective it is. And it’s expensive so in terms of being cost-effective, a cleanliness drive is still the better approach in dengue prevention,” del Mundo continued.
The official was in Cebu City yesterday for the launching of the “To-DOH Batok Dengue” program, an information and educational campaign on dengue prevention and detection.
In an interview after the program, del Mundo said he welcomes the ordinance that will penalize residents who don’t cooperate in the cleanliness programs, saying that sanctions and fines will move people to action, as what has been done in Singapore.
No other LGU in the country has legislated dengue prevention measures, he said.
Dengue map
During the program yesterday, Mayor Tomas Osmeña instructed barangay officials to come up with a map of their barangays and to plot the areas where dengue cases have been reported.
He said this will help authorities identify the specific areas where to focus intervention and dengue prevention measures.
Osmeña warned barangay and health officials that judging from the trends in the previous years, the dengue situation in the city will be worse in the coming months.
As of Feb. 19, 11 individuals already died of dengue fever in the city, and 322 dengue cases have been recorded.
“I’m asking the barangay officials to concentrate on two things. They should focus on education dissemination on the symptoms of dengue because if there is early detection, you will not have deaths. Also, find out where exactly the cases are and plot these on the map, then concentrate on those areas,” he told barangay captains at the launch.
