THE City Health Office (CHO) has requested for additional funds to purchase more larvicide to be given to 180 villages in Iloilo City and wage a battle against disease-carrying mosquitoes particularly aedes aegypti and aedes albopictus that thrive in stagnant water areas.
As of end of August 2016, dengue fever claimed 708 cases and three lives, one each from Barangay Ingore in La Paz, Barangay Balabago in Jaro, and Barangay Calumpang in Molo.
Zika fever claimed the first victim, an unnamed 45-year-old woman in Barangay Benedicto, Jaro district who is currently recovering from a week-long fever.
For the same period in 2015, dengue cases reached 295 with no death.
The Zika victim is the first recorded case in the city with no travel outside the country or city in the past two years.
City health officer Bernard Caspe said a surveillance team from the Department of Health (DOH) national office is coming to assess and validate the Zika victim here as city health team is also posted at the village to help eradication of the disease-carrying mosquitoes and monitor the Zika and dengue spread.
The CHO reminds pregnant women that it is very risky to get infected with the Zika virus as this has been linked to birth of babies with severe brain and other neurological defects including microcephaly, a rare condition where a baby has a small head.