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Monday, August 11, 2008
Pampanga dengue cases up by 200%
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO - Health officials in Central Luzon recorded a whooping 238 percent increase in dengue cases in the region compared to the same period last year.
The Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu) of the Department of Health (DOH) said about 2,636 cases were admitted to different hospitals in the region since January this year compared to the 755 cases last year.
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Dr. Irene Canlas of Resu recorded five deaths in Pampanga, particularly in Barangays Pulong Santol, Babo Sacan, Manibaug and Sta. Cruz, which are all in the town of Porac.
Reports stated that Pampanga still ranks first among Central Luzon provinces with dengue cases, followed by Bulacan with 658 and Nueva Ecija with 430.
Canlas warned that dengue cases might still go up because of the recent tropical storms, rains and floodwaters that affected some areas of Pampanga.
"The rains have just stopped, usually we record more cases immediately after the rain," Canlas said, adding that floodwaters and garbage in vacant lots are the usual breeding grounds of mosquitoes.
Canlas reminded that anti-dengue campaigns by local government units, especially in the barangay level, should include "search and destroy" operations of the potential and known breeding grounds of mosquitoes.
She also said public canals and school grounds should be kept clean, especially after the rain.
Despite the high number of dengue cases, Canlas said that Pampanga is still fortunate to have relatively low mortality rate. Since January, only five of the dengue victims in the province have died.
About 63 percent of the recorded cases involved are 16 years old and below.
In the entire region, 53 percent of the victims were male.
The DOH is calling on local communities to actively participate in environmental sanitation activities like clean up drives.
Canlas has advised that government officials should conduct extensive information campaigns on how to combat the dengue virus.
She said dengue cases will continue to rise if no tangible action is done about it.
The World Health Organization (WHO) earned warned that climate change will cause an increase in dengue fever and other infectious diseases in the country.
"What we can see is that the expected climate change is likely to increase the risks of dengue for many millions of people over the coming decades" in the Philippines, said Dr. John Juliard Go, WHO's national officer for non-communicable diseases.
"In the Philippines, there already are trends of increasing number of hot days and warm nights, but decreasing number of cold days and cool nights. Other extreme weather climate events like intense rains have been seen to be more frequent." (IOF of Sun.Star Pampanga)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pampanga. (August 11, 2008 issue)
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