BACOLOD City Mayor Evelio Leonardia urged the barangay officials to conduct cleanup drive program to help prevent dengue cases in the city.
“One of the most effective preventive measures is to ensure that we have clean surroundings. The barangay officials should intensify their campaign within their barangays,” Leonardia said Monday, July 15, 2019.
He said he already asked the City Health Office (CHO) to hold a meeting with the barangay officials to discuss the preventive measures to help prevent dengue cases within their respective barangay.
“Statistically speaking, Bacolod is not affected as much as the others, but still as we had emphasized over and over again that every case should be treated with seriousness,” he added.
The mayor noted that CHO should also continue its preventive measures in various barangays as well as in schools.
Leonardia said it is also the time that the barangay officials should use their funds for clean and green program because it involves sanitation and health matter.
For her part, Dr. Grace Tan, CHO-Environmental Sanitation Division head, said they are still waiting for Councilor Lady Gles Pallen the schedule of their meeting with the barangay officials this week.
She said from January to July 6, four persons died of suspected dengue in Bacolod.
Of the same period, Bacolod City has a total of 561 dengue cases which increased by 57 percent compared to last year’s 353 cases with three deaths.
Of 561 dengue cases, Barangay Estefania posted the highest number of cases with 67.
Others included Barangays Tangub and Pahanocoy, 39 each; Taculing, 38; Granada, 35; Mansilingan and Alijis, 33 each; Handumanan, 31; Villamonte, 28; Mandalagan and Singcang-Airport, 27 each; Bata, 25; Sum-ag and Banago, 21 each.
The latest fatality is the four-year old girl from Barangay Mansilingan.
The victim suffered a three day-fever and has a consultation with a quack doctor, then was rushed to a hospital where she was declared dead on arrival on Friday.
Tan said every three years, it’s noted that the dengue cases in the city also increased.
“It’s not just in Bacolod City, but all over the country. In fact, in the Calabarzon, the Department of Health was alarmed on its increasing numbers of dengue cases,” she said.
She added in 2010, Bacolod City has a total of 4, 278 dengue cases with 12 deaths; 2013, 3,300 with six deaths; 2016, 2, 180 with 19 deaths and it’s expected that by 2019 it will also increase.
Tan noted that dengue cases also increase in the months of July and August because it’s a rainy season.
“Study shows that even a drop of rain could be a breeding ground of mosquitoes that can lay 100 eggs at a time,” she added.
Tan pointed out that the public should also continue adapting the “4S” program of the Department of Health.
The 4S stands for search and destroy mosquito breeding places; use self-protection measures; seek early consultation for fever lasting more than two days; and say no to indiscriminate fogging.