Iwas-dengue drive calls for clean surroundings

Spraying and fogging activities are not enough to rid places of dengue-carrying mosquitoes, said officials of the anti-dengue campaign as they urged the public instead to clean their respective houses and surroundings to destroy the breeding sites of these destructive insects. This was the advice of officials of SC Johnson and Sons Inc., which teamed up with the city government in pushing its Iwas Dengue campaign this year that was launched in sitio Sambag 4, barangay Guadalupe yesterday.

SC Johnson's general manager Reinhardt Schellner, together with councilor Chris Alix and barangay captain Jingjing Faelnar, led an anti-dengue brigade in spraying Baygon Mosquito Killer-a pesticide-inside houses, on canals, vacant lots, garbage areas and stagnant water around the barangay. The free spraying activity was part of the firm's Iwas Dengue drive but Schellner insisted that maintaining the surroundings clean is a better way of stopping the mosquitoes from breeding and preventing the alarming spread of dengue cases in the city.

For a period of 15 days, SC Johnson's anti-dengue brigade will visit one or two city barangays every day to conduct free spraying from one house to another, distribute OFF! Insect Repellent samples, anti-dengue leaflets and other educational materials to help raise public awareness on dengue prevention. The firm's Iwas Dengue campaign is now on its seventh year aiming to serve more than 10,000 households all over the country this year. The last count of total households served from the time the program started until last year reached at least 160,000.

City Health department acting head, Dr. Fe Cabugao, in a separate interview, agreed that no amount of spraying pesticides or fogging could be effective if residents would not clean their houses and surroundings also. - Cristina C. Birondo