Tuesday, March 25, 2008 Military joins fight v. dengue By Bong Garcia
ZAMBOANGA CITY -- The military's Task Force Zamboanga (TFZ) has detailed some of its forces to engage in another type of combat to back-up the City Health Office (CHO) in the fight against dengue in this city.
TFZ chief Colonel Darwin Guerra said his personnel has already assisted the CHO personnel on three occasions during the recent clean-up drive aimed to eradicate cases of dengue in this city's different villages.
The first was last March 13, which was the first day of the anti-dengue campaign, in the village of Putik, east of this city.
The second was March 17 in the village of Vitali and the third in the village of Baliwasan, according to Guerra.
He said the fight against dengue should not only be the concern of the health sector since everybody's cooperation is needed to contain if not eradicate such kind of deadly disease.
He said the mosquito dengue carrier do not choose victims rather it bites human of all ages and profession, thus everybody should join the fight against dengue.
Reports reaching the CHO showed that since January there were already 434 dengue cases with three fatalities, the latest victim of which was a teenager from the Campo Islam Village, west of this city.
The CHO has declared early this month a dengue outbreak in this city that resulted to the launching of a citywide anti-dengue drive.
Dengue otherwise known as hemorrhagic fever is an acute infectious disease initially manifested with fever. (Bong Garcia)
