LGUs intensify anti-dengue drive

Local government units in Metro Manila stepped up their effort in containing dengue following an appeal by the Department of the Interior and Local Government to help prevent the spread of the highly infectious disease.

In Quezon City, the local government has contained dengue in affected areas through a massive information campaign and clean-up operations to kill disease carrying mosquitoes in their natural habitat.

Manuel Sabalza, chief of the Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS) said the city health department is in the process of determining the number of residents, particularly children in depressed areas, that have been affected by the disease. Earlier radio reports claimed the disease affected a least five children from the Pagasa Elementary School.

The city government started anti-dengue operations last month by distributing larvicides to barangays officials to be placed in areas with stagnant water.

At the Pagasa Elementary School, barangay officials, led by Barangay Captain Teddy Bilaos, identified a stagnant pool inside the school campus and a bamboo grove at the back of the school as possible breeding grounds of mosquitoes.

In Navotas, the municipal government began a no-nonsense campaign against the spread of dengue and other water-borne diseases this rainy season.

Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco said yesterday he instructed the Municipal Health Office, Engineering Office, Public Information Office and other concerned offices of the local government to see to the success of its "Rainy Day Health Alert Campaign."

The mayor said the health drive will involve all sectors of society, particularly the school sector.

Dr. Hector David, MHO chief, heads the anti-dengue team and is in the thick of the month-long "Barangay-to-Barangay Dengue Campaign: Puksain Enemy Number One Dengue."

Among the activities lined up include information dissemination; fogging operations in all local schools, both public and private; de-clogging and cleaning operations on all waterways and canals and the activation of the Barangay Anti-Dengue Teams to monitor and coordinate all reports of dengue and other diseases in the town’s 14 barangays.

In Malabon City, health officials have sent a team to investigate the reported dengue cases at the Gozon Compound in Barangay Tonsuya.

Dick Melendrez, a Gozon Compound resident, claimed at least nine individuals, six of them children, were afflicted with dengue.

"So far, we have no confirmed report yet of dengue cases in the area," Dr. Lourdes Abquilan, Malabon City Health Office officer-in-charge, said. – Perseus Echeminada, Jerry Botial, Pete Laude