More malnourished children in city

CEBU, Philippines - The number of malnourished children in Cebu City has increased to 5,892 this year compared to only 5,781 last year. Health officials, however, are not worried about the statistics. 

City health officer Stella Ygoña explained it is not surprising that the number of malnourished children had gone up, considering that there were 133,072 school-age children subjected to Operation Timbang this year. Only 132,749 were subjected to the operation in 2010.

Most of the malnourished children are from Barangays Ermita, Sawang Calero, Sapangdaku, Babag 1, Babag II, and sitio Banawa in Guadalupe.

Ygoña attributed the increase to inadequate nourishment. The children are deemed underweight in consideration of their age and height.

The recent scenario prompted health officials to conduct seminars to the parents of the concerned children. Ygoña said the parents were taught how to prepare nourishing food for their children. Aside from the seminar, the government also conducted feeding programs for the children.

Meanwhile, Ygoña announced that the number of dengue cases in the city in the first five months this year is “more serious” compared to the number of cases in the same period last year. Health officials urged the public anew to clean their surroundings.

There are only 663 reported dengue cases from January to May 21 this year, but there were seven dengue-related deaths reported. There were more cases within the same period last year but only six deaths were reported.

Health officials conducted information campaign in different barangays, particularly in those places where dengue is more prevalent.

Ygoña had brought all his staffs to City Hall yesterday and all of them explained that early detection of cases is the best prevention to reduce the number of dengue cases.

A few weeks ago, health officials started spraying chemicals in the premises of various public schools to kill mosquitoes hoping to minimize, if not to totally solve, the dengue problem in Cebu City.   - (THE FREEMAN)