Talisay councilor proposes creation of dengue brigades

CEBU, Philippines - In a bid to prevent the spread of dengue, City Councilor Choy Aznar yesterday urged barangay officials and school heads to clean the surroundings regularly and continue to educate students as well as the public about the dreaded disease.

In two proposed resolutions, Aznar, chairman in council committee on Health, requests the Department of Education-Talisay City Division and the 22 barangays to create dengue brigades in their respective jurisdictions.

The two proposals were carried unanimously by the council in its session yesterday morning.

Aznar said the dengue brigade "seeks to reinforce the city dengue intensive drive against dengue by going back to the basics of comprehensive vector control supported by environmental manipulation and modification."

Under these newly approved measures, all schools and barangays must conduct cleanup activities to be spearheaded by barangay leaders and include the active participation of community volunteers.

"The campaign urges families, barangay leaders, and youth councils to aggressively seek and clean out possible mosquito breeding sites every week especially in areas that continue to experience clustering dengue cases or where high cases of dengue have been documented," read a part of the measure.

Aznar's proposal to create dengue brigades came on the heels of a report by the Regional Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit (RESU7) from January 1- August 27 2011 which showed that Talisay City ranks number 5 in Central Visayas with a high mortality rate.

Based on this report, the city recorded 124 cases of dengue, with three deaths. The city is tailing Cebu City with 1,027 cases of which 10 are morbidity; Lapu-Lapu City (188 cases; 1 death); Mandaue City (158 cases; 2 deaths), and Danao City with 140 dengue cases and one death.

Basing the past years' records of RESU7, Choy told the council that dengue cases are expected to soar on the approaching months, thus, the need to inform the public about it and a "more aggressive advocacy" must be launched.

From January to August, barangay San Roque had the highest number of dengue cases with 11 while the villages of Tanke and San Isidro had 10 and 8, respectively. - THE FREEMAN