THE Zamboanga City government has formed a City Dengue Management Team to address the problems of continuous increase of dengue incidents in the city.
Dr. Rodel Agbulos, city health officer, said on Saturday that the City Dengue Management Team was created during a meeting with physicians, health workers and health practitioners to devise curative approaches using major health centers in the city to treat patients with dengue.
Agbulos called the meeting after the City Government declared a dengue outbreak following the persistent increase of dengue cases in the city.
Data from City Health Office showed that the total number of dengue cases from January to August 24 this year reached 1,755 or higher by 1,047 compared to 708 cases in the corresponding period last year.
Twenty people have so far been killed by the disease since January this year. Only eight fatalities were recorded in the same period last year.
Agbulos said the City Dengue Management Team will be headed by Dr. Marie Arciaga with Dr. Junie Rivera and Dr. Dalisay as members.
Agbulos said the team will answer referrals for hard-to-manage dengue cases that require intensive handling and treatment of patients.
He said the services of medical practitioners and health volunteers in the villages are badly needed with the mounting number of dengue cases especially in the far-flung communities.
He said there will be a citywide clean-up drive next week to search and destroy breeding sites of mosquito larvae as part of the preventive approach against dengue.
He said the curative and preventive approaches are two-way strategies to address the cases of dengue in the different areas in this southern port city. (Bong Garcia)