As of May, reported cases have reached 556, and while the latest figures are still being verified, it is anticipated that the city will have the highest incidence of dengue in Central Visayas.
Nationwide, there has been a sharp increase in dengue cases, with more than 5,000 reported in the first six months of this year compared to more than 2,000 during the same period last year.
City health officials have formed teams to conduct "dengue interference" operations in selected barangays like Lahug, Guadalupe and Talamban.
Gomarcinco Ybañez, environmental sanitation chief, said the teams will conduct fogging and get rid of breeding places of mosquitoes.
Junjiz Wazola, of the Department of Health’s regional epidemiology and surveillance unit, said authorities should conduct similar activities in schools, where outbreaks of dengue are possible.
Councilor Christopher Alix, chairman of the council’s committee on health and hospital services, said schools are targets of dengue intervention drives since children spend most of their time on campuses.
Children aged five to 13 are most prone to dengue since they do not wear protective clothing and are fond of playing with pools of stagnant water.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said health inspectors will be retrained to fully enforce public awareness about dengue and vowed to tap barangay officials for help.
The challenge, he said, lies in encouraging people to clean their surroundings to get rid of breeding areas of mosquitoes.
A person in the first stage of exposure to dengue experiences continuous high fever from two to seven days, loss of appetite, nausea or vomiting, abdominal pains and bleeding tendencies in the nose and gums. — Freeman News Service