City to use comics, TV ads to educate public on dengue

The city government would use visuals, such as four-page comics and television commercials, to educate the masses on the need to prevent the spread of the dengue-carrying mosquito, Aedes egypti, and on the outcome of ignoring the deadly insect.

The Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council has been working on these visuals that are designed to help the public learn better the matters about the mosquito and the dengue virus that have claimed the lives of many and downed hundreds others.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña admitted that the public’s lack of concern in cleaning the surroundings may be a “hard habit to break” but he has been optimistic that comics and television commercials would somehow reverse this attitude.

Osmeña said there is no better way to prevent the virus from spreading than to clean one’s surroundings and rid areas of breeding places for mosquitoes.

On top of this initiative from the city government, barangay officials have the responsibility also of ensuring cooperation on enforcing this from the people.

“The responsibility should be given to the barangay officials…it should be at the lowest level. With early detection, there will be no fatality,” Osmeña said. 

City records reveal that since January this year, a total of 1566 dengue cases were recorded in the city with barangay Labangon posting the highest number with 97 cases, followed by barangay Lahug with 93 and barangay Pardo with 65.

These numbers are 110 percent higher compared to the recorded number of dengue cases last year, records showed, adding that the outbreak level was reached from August until October.

Last September 24, the city declared a dengue outbreak in barangays Pardo, Labangon and Bulacao. Four days later, with 25 deaths recorded for this year, the city council declared the entire city under state of calamity.

The latest fatality was 22-year-old Aster Mangcay, of barangay Apas, who died early morning on November 13, or four days after suffering from recurring fever. Two weeks earlier, a five-year-old boy from the same barangay had died.

Kathleen Ayaay, a nurse of the barangay’s health center, said they have been baffled on ways to combat the dengue outbreak in Apas, particularly at sitio Baca, because they have been conducting  constant massive spraying and cleanliness drive in the area since months ago.

Ayaay said they are very much alarmed and worried with the two deaths considering that both cases showed that the virus that infected both patients was lethal, as manifested by the blood in the feces.

Nursing students from the University of the Visayas have also been deployed to the barangay to educate residents there, numbering at least 17,000, about dengue prevention. – Joeberth M. Ocao/RAE