DENGUE cases in Cordillera region increased by 76 percent from January 1 to April 20, 2019 compared to the same period in 2018, the Department of Health Cordillera said.
Karen Lonogan, senior health program officer of the Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (Resu) said “Compared to last year wherein we had 957 cases of Dengue in the Cordillera, this year we recorded 1,681 cases with three deaths due to dengue.”
Lonogan said majority of these cases comes from Ifugao, followed by Mountain Province and Benguet Province.
Benguet recorded 366 cases or a 76 percent increase followed by Apayao with 364 cases with a 379 percent increase, Ifugao had 173 with a 541 percent increase, Mountain Province recorded 133 cases or a 432 percent increase.
Abra, Kalinga and Baguio City registered a decrease in dengue cases.
Abra only had 115 cases with a 4 percent decrease, Baguio City with 80 cases for a 32 percent decrease and Kalinga at 128 with a 53 percent decrease.
“We continue to call on the general public when it comes to dengue prevention which is to always search and destroy the breeding areas of mosquitoes. It has been proven and it is cost effective and we continue to urge the public to clean their homes and its environment. This has to be a community effort particularly in cleaning their surroundings,” Lonogan added.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease that has rapidly spread in all regions of WHO in recent years. Dengue virus is transmitted by female mosquitoes mainly of the species Aedes aegypti and, to a lesser extent, Ae. albopictus. This mosquito also transmits chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika infection.
Symptoms, which usually begin four to six days after infection and last for up to 10 days, may include sudden, high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash which appears two to five days after the onset of fever, mild bleeding (such as nose bleed, bleeding gums, or easy bruising).
Sometimes, symptoms are mild and can be mistaken for those of the flu or another viral infection. Younger children and people who have never had the infection before tend to have milder cases than older children and adults. However, serious problems can develop.
These include dengue hemorrhagic fever, a rare complication characterized by high fever, damage to lymph and blood vessels, bleeding from the nose and gums, enlargement of the liver, and failure of the circulatory system. The symptoms may progress to massive bleeding, shock, and death. This is called dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
People with weakened immune systems as well as those with a second or subsequent dengue infection are believed to be at greater risk for developing dengue hemorrhagic fever.