BAGUIO CITY — Deaths due to dengue fever in Baguio City rose from seven to 12, even as cases continued to decline albeit reaching unprecedented levels.
Most of the fatalities were already on severe stage when they sought consultation while the adult victims had comorbidities, the Baguio City Health Services office said.
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Physician Donnabel Panes, head of the City Epidemiology Surveillance Unit, said the number of dengue cases decreased starting middle of May though its number remained record-breaking.
The city logged a total of 5,505 dengue cases as of Aug. 22, 2024, the highest in the city’s history, compared to last year’s 645. This is equivalent to 753% increase.
In a meeting of the Baguio City Anti-Dengue Task Force last August 16, two factors were identified contributing to the case and death rates. These are the failure to implement preventive measures within the households like the destruction of mosquito breeding places despite full awareness and the failure to seek early consultation which could have prevented the deaths.
“The problem is really behavioral and it is disheartening because upon the conduct of follow-up of cases. We still find mosquito-breeding places despite having a patient and despite having already known that these must be gotten rid of. We conduct 'denguerra' in the barangay level but we cannot anymore clean the insides of your houses for you,” a health worker lamented.
Baguio's battle against dengue fever is dubbed “denguerra”.
“We really have to do something to improve our search and destroy early health seeking behavior,” the health worker added.
The Sanitation Division of the City Health Services of Baguio which is working with the community in the implementation of the anti-dengue measures said they have operated in at least ten barangays where they also checked compliance with the city’s Anti-Dengue Ordinance (Ordinance 66-2016).
Sanitation Inspector Miller Balisongen said a total of 241 households were found to have violated the provisions of the ordinance in said barangays and they have coordinated with their barangay officials for the rendering of community service for their penalty on first offense.
Last June, Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong ordered the intensified implementation of the anti-dengue ordinance including the imposition of penalties against those who do not follow the dengue control measures after medical officers observed that although residents are fully aware of the prevention activities, many households are still not cooperating in its implementation.
The ordinance prohibits the following:
- storing water in containers not tightly covered
- keeping and storing water filled vases and using ornamental plants with pot saucer and axilled plants for a long period
- keeping or having discarded tires, discharging wastewater or sewage unto streets, roads, alleys and pathways and conducting chemical control methods without clearance from the City Health Services and the Department of Health
“Any uncooperative owner, group of persons or public or private entity can be summoned to appear before the punong barangay to explain at reasonable cause why no legal action should be taken upon the violator,” the ordinance reads.
Violators could face the following penalties:
- First offense - Render community service for three days at the barangay
- Second offense - Fine of P1,000 and conduct of community service for three days
- Third offense - Fine of P3,000 and imprisonment of two days at the discretion of the court
The City Health Services has retained the dengue preventive measures.
Aside from strengthening case surveillance, the City Health Services is also implementing 5S anti-dengue public awareness campaign and clean-up drives through the “Denguerra – War against Dengue" program, an intensified campaign to mobilize barangays to conduct massive and simultaneous search and destroy operations every Thursday to weed out mosquito breeding sites as well as other interventions to stop the reproduction of dengue-carrying mosquitoes and the use of larvicides in critical barangays.
TThe city also launched an online system of reporting cases to boost surveillance and capture all cases as part of the City Health Services’ newly developed monitoring system which.
According to Panes, this system integrates data gathering from health laboratories and citizen self-reporting. Dengue cases could be reported through this link: https://forms.gle/