Dengue rise seen with rains

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City legislators are worried that the rains the city has experienced in the past weeks may cause the dengue situation in the city to worsen as dengue is normally expected to increase during the rainy season.

This prompted members of the City Council to request city health officials headed by Dr. Stella Ygoña to provide them with the dengue situational report before their regular session on Wednesday.

Councilor Rodrigo “Bebot” Abellanosa suggested that either Ygoña or her representative should be around during the session and should be ready if in case the councilors have questions.

The report reaching the City Council was that the dengue situation in some parts of the country is already alarming because of the rains, although the dengue cases in the city are lesser compared to last year.

There were 757 dengue cases with eight deaths recorded by the Cebu City Health Department since January, but assistant city epidemiologist Durinda Macasocol said the figure is much lower than the 930 cases last year.

“Daghan og dengue cases last year pero pito ra usab ang patay, karon minus pero walo ang patay,” said Macasocol.

The Department of Health has called local government officials and the people to sustain clean-up campaigns to prevent dengue particularly in areas which have experienced an increase in dengue cases. 

Nationwide records show that from January to August 6 this year, there were 45,333 reported dengue cases although it is still lower compared to 68,168 for the same period in 2010. Only 267 deaths have been reported this year compared to 539 in the same time period last year.

Health Secretary Enrique Ona urged the public to continue community actions to destroy the possible areas where dengue-carrying mosquitoes can breed.

“We can prevent cases if we maintain a clean environment and destroying all possible Aedes Aegypti mosquito breeding sites,” Ona said in his order sent to regional health offices.  (FREEMAN)