THE total suspected dengue cases in the region has reached 19,525 with 76 reported deaths as of January 1 to August 31, the Department of Health (DOH)-Northern Mindanao showed on Tuesday, September 3.
Albeit still above the epidemic threshold, Gemma Uy, the program director for dengue prevention of DOH-Northern Mindanao, said that the trend of dengue cases has started to decline.
“Bisan above sa epidemic threshold, paubos ang iyahang trend. Pero naa gihapon ta sa epidemic threshold. So dapat i-strengthen gyud nato ang atoang advocacy, i-strengthen nato ang atong 4S nga campaign,” Uy said.
According to Uy, of the five provinces and highly urbanized cities in the region, Bukidnon has recorded the highest number of suspected dengue cases at 7,672, followed by Misamis Oriental wtih 3,178 cases, and Lanao del Norte with 2,708 cases.
“Ang gisaad nga reason nganong kanang isa ka area is taas ang kaso is isa ana is growing population, increase urbanization,” Uy said.
“Kung asa dapit magtapok ang mga tao, diba ang lamok molupad up to 300 meters. So kun magtapok-tapok ang mga tao didto, mas dako ang chance. High risk na,” she added.
Majority of the dengue cases affected males (53 percent) with an age range of less than a year old to 89 years old.
Uy, however, still encouraged the public to practice the 4S strategy, particularly the search and destroy of breeding sites, and to continue the anti-dengue campaigns.
“Every two to three years gasaka ang atong cases tungod kay ang mga tao ana nalimtan na nila. Like karon, nitaas ta nga year. Pagka next year basin mo mubo ta. So, kompyansa ang mga tao nga dili na maglimpyo. Mao na every two to three years gataas ta tungod kay ang uban kompyansa,” Uy said.
Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Emano said that they are still waiting for a municipality to declare a state of calamity on dengue even though they already have a recommendation from the committee on health to declare the province under state of calamity.
“Ang amo na lang gihulat karon is dunay usa ka munisipyo nga mo-declare. Sad to say nga I think Claveria is one, Gingoog is one, and El Salvador nga medyo naay taas nga prevalence sa dengue,” Emano said.
“And ang problema is ang atong balaod nag ingon nga maka declare ko og calamity kun naay usa or duha ka munisipyo,” he added.
Emano said, they are still looking for a law that can enable them to declare Misamis Oriental under state of calamity.
At present, there’s still no state of calamity declared in the municipality, provincial and city levels. (Jo Ann Sablad)