BAGUIO CITY – The City Health services Office reported that dengue fever cases in the city increased by over four hundred percent from 239 cases from January 1 to July 20, 2015 to 1,875 cases during the same period this year.
Dra. Rowena Galpo, City Health Services Officer, said 64 percent or 1,199 cases were residents of the city’s barangays while the rest of the reported dengue cases are from nearby municipalities and provinces.
56 percent of the dengue cases were males while the remainder were females and that the age range of the affected patients were from 3 months to 82 years old.
Galpo revealed among the actions taken by the concerned offices to help combat the rapid increase in dengue fever cases include the purchase of two ultra-low volume space spray machines, emergency hiring of two fumigators, training of Emergency Management Services (EMS) and City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (CDRRMC) staff as pesticide applicators to augment manpower, policy development through consultative meetings for the crafting of the dengue ordinance of the city, signing of appropriate lawful orders to mobilize the available city resources against dengue, dengue advocacy meetings with barangay officials, private-public partnership meetings with stakeholders to discuss inter-agency response against dengue and misting of the affected barangays.
The City Health Officer disclosed there were 30 barangays covered by the misting operations since May 18, 2016 but there are still more barangays to be covered by the said activity up to next month.
On the other hand, Galpo claimed there were 12 schools that were covered by the misting operations from June 1-9, 2016 as part of the Brigada Eskwela and the schools were located in the barangays with reported clustering of dengue cases.
The barangays that were subjected to misting operations were Camp 7, San Vicente, Lourdes Extension, Dominican-Mirador, Asin road, San Luis Village, Quezon Hill Proper, Middle Quirino Hill, Lower Quirino Hill, Santa Escolastica, Pacdal, Loakan Proper, Pinsao Pilot, Irisan, West Quirino Hill, East Quirino Hill, North Sanitary Camp, Bakakeng Central, Bakakeng Norte, Engineer’s Hill, Kias, Lucnab, Fairveiw, Pinget, Lopez Jaena, Hillside, Dontogan, Balsigan, Camp 8 and Victoria Village while the schools that were also provided misting operations are Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo Elementary School, Josefa Cariño Elementary School, Baguio Central School, Loakan Elementary School, Pinsao Elementary School, San Vicente Elementary School, Quirino Elementary School, Pinget Elementary School, Bakakeng Elementary School, Lucban Elementary School and Magsaysay Elementary School.
Galpo reminded local residents to observe cleanliness inside and outside their homes, particularly the destruction of the breeding ground of dengue-carrying mosquitoes, considering that the efforts to combat the sudden surge in the dreaded illness is a combined approach among all concerned stakeholders in the city..
She added the concerned offices of the local government will continue the conduct of regular meetings with the task force, dengue program coordinators, surveillance unit head, health education and promotion officer to map out the necessary plans to prevent dengue outbreak in the city./By Dexter A. See
