THE Davao City Health Office (CHO) expressed concerns with the shortage of dengue diagnostic test kits, which is now in demand due to the surge of dengue cases in the city.
Since 2015, the Department of Health (DOH) had been rolling-out the Dengue NS1 Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kit that detects the presence of dengue virus as fast as 15 minutes, even at its early stages.
However, CHO Tropical Disease and Control Division Test Control worker Melodina Babante said the city is almost running out of RDT kits in its health centers.
“Prior to the outbreak, medyo dili pa aware ang tawo sa paggamit aning NS1 test kits, especially tong May. Pero karon, medyo nagka-daghan na ang nagaduol sa among opisina, gapangutana if naa pa mi’y sobrang dengue test kits (Prior to the outbreak, some people were not aware of the NS1 test kits, especially in May. But now, the people had been visiting our office, asking if we still have available kits),” Babante told Sunstar Davao in a phone call interview.
Babante said DOH delivered almost 600 RDT kits to CHO last August 1, which were then distributed to the rural health units (RHUs) and district health centers in the city.
However, as of August 6, she said only around 100 test kits are available.
"Nanawag na gani ang ubang districts. Pahurotay na gyud ang NS1 test kits na gihatag sa atong districts (Our district health centers had been calling us to deliver them these NS1 test kits since the available kits are almost running out)," Babante said.
Sunstar Davao visited the CHO office on August 7 and one of the health workers revealed that there was only one box left, each box consist of 25 RDT kits.
Babante said they are hoping that they would be immediately given excess supply of test kits.
"Unta matagaan tag daghan na NS1 test kits. Aron kung magpostive man ang pasyente na matest sa NS1, ma-refer nato sila dayon sa bigger hospitals para maiwasan na naa mamatay sa sakit ning atong pasyente (We hope we would be given more NS1 test kits. So that these patients would be immediately brought into the hospital, in case they would be confirmed positive during our testing. We wanted to save their lives from the disease)," she said.
DOH, on Tuesday, declared a national dengue epidemic due to alarming increase, the demand for the dengue diagnostic test kits continues to increase while its supply is running out.
Meanwhile, DOH regional director Annabelle Yumang said this should not worry the public since there are other methods the health unit is using to immediately trace symptoms of dengue.
Yumang also clarified that patients are strictly examined before they will be recommended to use the kit.
She also said the result of the NS1 kit would still vary as it would still undergo observations.
"Bisan pa og mahurot ang supply nato sa NS1 test kits, ang NS1 nato man gud is ato lang idocument if nag-positive ba gyud siya sa dengue. Pero if naa gyud kay simptomas sa dengue, i-treat jud ka nga naa kay naay dengue (Even though we would be running out of NS1 test kits, we still have other methods in detecting someone who has dengue. The NS1 is for documentation purposes to validate that the patient is positive of dengue. If the patient is showing symptoms of dengue, we will do the necessary treatment as how a dengue patient should be treated)," Yumang said.
While she said the regional DOH is relying on the stocks from the central office, she said they will immediately deliver the needed number of test kits in the city's health centers.
"Makahatag pa mi sa ila incase mahurot, basta mu-update lang sila sa among program manager na pahurutay na (We can provide it incase it will run out. All they have to do is inform our program manager)," she said.
Yumang also called on the patients to visit the nearest health centers or hospitals in case they are experiencing symptoms of dengue.
"Importante gyud mag seek og early consultation if naa na sila'y gibati (It is important to seek early consultation if they are not feeling well)," she said.
In a recent data from January 1 to July 20 this year, there have been a total of 146,062 dengue cases, including 622 deaths. This was almost double the cases recorded in the same period in 2018.
Meanwhile, in Davao City, a total 1,414 cases with seven deaths were recorded by CHO, as of July 31.