Officials urged to destroy mosquito breeding sites

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday urged the barangay officials in Cebu City to help the city in its campaign against dengue by destroying the breeding sites of mosquitoes in their respective areas.

Osmeña said the city has already done its best to warn the residents and ask them to destroy the breeding sites of mosquitoes in their places, but he observed that some barangay officials are lax in implementing the precautionary measures.

The statistics showed that there were 183 cases of dengue last January compared to only 105 dengue cases for the same month last year.

City health statistics officer Durinda Macasocol said seven people have already died of dengue —two in January and three during the first week of this month— compared to only four deaths compared to the same period from January to February 6 in 2009.

Macasocol, assistant chief of the Cebu City Epidemiology Statistics and Surveillance Unit, said the latest three new casualties this month came from barangays Bulacao, Tejero and Calamba, while those who died in January were from barangays Tejero and Pardo.

The series of rains these past few days may be the reasons why the dengue cases already reached 223 during the first 37 days of this year compared to last year’s only 131 cases for the same period.

The statistics also showed that the months of August and September last year had the highest number of dengue cases probably because of the start of the rainy season.

Macasocol advised the public to be on alert and to make sure to destroy the breeding sites of mosquitoes in their respective areas.

Forty-one people, mostly children, died of dengue in Cebu City last year, although the figure is much lower compared to 52 deaths in 2008.

Macasocol told the parents of the dengue victims to report immediately to the nearest barangay health center so the vicinity of their houses can be sprayed with chemicals to kill the adult mosquitoes.

One of the indications that a person is afflicted with dengue virus is that he or she will experience severe fever, particularly during the evening.

Osmeña reiterated that the city will not charge dengue patients if they want to be confined at the Cebu City Medical Center. — Rene U. Borromeo/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)