CEBU, Philippines - For the first two weeks of this year, the Cebu City Health department had already recorded 115 dengue cases from 24 barangays of the city. City Health Officer Stella Ygona said her office will be sending notices to the officials of said barangays, particularly to Calamba Barangay Captain Victor Quijano, so that they can make precautionary measures.
Ygona said she is worried because four cases have already been recorded in Barangay Calamba, more than in the other barangays.
According to Ygona the City Health personnel will do their best to reduce the dengue cases of Cebu City this year by intensifying their information campaign and spraying chemicals that can kill mosquito larvae in stagnant water.
During the first two weeks of last year there were 138 dengue cases reported in different hospitals in the city.
City Health recorded 4,057 dengue cases in Cebu City last year, which is almost double the figure of 2011, although there were only 13 casualties compared to 14 in the previous year.
According to Ygona they will intensify the information drive asking the public to get rid of stagnant water because it will become breeding sites for mosquitoes.
Ygona said the increasing number of dengue cases last year might be because the public is already aware of the right thing to do if a member of their family will experience fever.
She said the Complete Blood Count at the Cebu City Medical Center, City Health department and barangay health centers is free of charge. The platelet counts of persons afflicted by dengue usually drops, that is why Ygona said anybody who experiences severe fever should be immediately subjected to a CBC.
The good news, however, is that the statistics showed that while the dengue cases increased compared to the figure in the past years, dengue-related deaths dropped.
In 2008 there were 53 dengue-related casualties. This went down to 51 the following year and continued to go down in the succeeding years. (FREEMAN)