CV tops in dengue cases

Central Visayas ranks fourth in the highest number of dengue cases in the country as shown in the data of the National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health.

Central Visayas has a total of 2, 234 cases, ranking fourth from northern Mindanao, National Capital Region, and Central Luzon from January to October.

Dengue cases in Northern Mindanao have already reached to 3, 107, NCR with 3,017 and Central Luzon with 2, 417 cases.

Dengue cases nationwide now reached to 19,840 with 271 deaths recorded. Ages of cases ranged from one month to 95 years. Majority (53 percent) of cases were male.

Medical specialist Jonathan Neil Erasmo, Program Coordinator of Vector-Borne Diseases Control Program said presently, there were neither hotspots nor outbreaks in the region. However, there are still clustering of cases in some areas.

Earlier, the Department of Health advised the public to store water in covered containers and replace them everyday to prevent the breeding of Dengue causing mosquitoes as cases from January to May 19 this year now reached to 478 cases in the region.

He said that the public has to be vigilant with the vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue and filariasis saying that there could be possible increase of the cases brought about by mosquitoes this year.

Erasmo said that dengue in all year occurrence, increasing during rainy months. Used tires bottles, tin cans and all sorts of containers become filled with rain water and breeds dengue mosquitoes. " We are bracing for an increase of cases as it is already the onset of rainy season which means also that there is an increased availability of stagnant water, suitable for these mosquitoes to breed," Erasmo said.

Erasmo said the public must also clean gutters of leaves, clean old tires and debris so that rain will not be collected in them and will also collect and dispose all unusable tin cans, jars, bottles and other items that can collect and hold water to avoid breeding sites of mosquitoes.

Dengue is an acute, infectious tropical disease caused by an arbovirus transmitted by mosquitoes, and characterized by high fever, rash, headache, and severe muscle and joint pain. Also called breakbone fever, dandy fever; Also called dengue fever.

Malaria on the other hand is also an infectious disease characterized by cycles of chills, fever, and sweating, caused by a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium in red blood cells, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of an infected female anopheles mosquito. - Jasmin R. Uy