THE Zamboanga City Health Office has placed the city on alert as the cases of dengue have already surpassed the alert level threshold.
City Health Officer Rodelin Agbulos said they have recorded 457 dengue cases in August this year, which are significantly higher compared to the 342 cases registered in the same month in 2015.
Agbulos said there are already 107 reported cases of dengue from September 1.
However, Agbulos clarified that the dengue cases exceeded the alert levels but remains below epidemic threshold levels.
Agbulos said the World Health Organization defined alert threshold as the critical number of cases that is used to sound an early warning and prepare to respond to the epidemic.
The epidemic threshold on the other hand is defined as the critical number or density of susceptible hosts required for an epidemic to occur.
Agbulos reiterated his call for action from the villages to prevent the rise of dengue to epidemic levels.
Agbulos said that 10 of this city’s 98 villages have registered high number of dengue cases. (Bong Garcia/Sunnex)