Two more kids die of dengue

CEBU, Philippines -  The five-year-old daughter of a couple who are working in the media in Cebu City is one of the two latest casualties of dengue in the city, bringing to 25 the total number of dengue-related deaths since January.

 The other victim is a four-year-old girl from Sitio Mahiga, Barangay Banilad who died hours after she was brought to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center due to high fever, said Cebu City Health Department’s Durinda Macasocol.

 Macasocol, assistant chief of the City Epidemiology Statistics and Surveillance Unit, said the daughter of couple Roger and Chielo Vallena, of Sunstar Daily and GMA-7 Balitang Bisdak, respectively, died at Chong Hua Hospital at dawn yesterday. The death of the four year-old-girl in Banilad is the first dengue-related casualty reported from that barangay, and also that of Mary Heart Vallena whose family lives in Barangay Bacayan.

 Mary Heart was brought to Chong Hua Hospital on September 12 due to high fever, but she expired about two days later. While the death toll of dengue in the city from January has already reached 25, still the figure is still comparatively lower compared to 38 deaths in the same period last year.

 One of the ways to determine if the person is afflicted with dengue is through his platelet count, which drops to below normal level once he has acquired the disease. With this, the city government is offering free hospital and laboratory examinations to patients who are suspected to have dengue. — Rene U. Borromeo/WAB   (THE FREEMAN)