Pangasinan town under state of calamity due to dengue

BASISTA, Pangasinan – Five barangays in this town were declared under a state of calamity by the Municipal Disaster Coordinating Council in their meeting Friday here due to dengue cases that have reached a total of more than 120 with one death.

Municipal Councilor Leonardo Caranto who proposed the said move told The STAR that such declaration is yet to pass tomorrow in the Sangguniang Bayan during their regular session. Dengue is caused by mosquito (Aedes aegypti) bites characterized by high fever, severe headache, muscle and joint pains and rashes.

But Caranto, municipal president of the Liga ng mga Barangay, is confident it will be approved smoothly by his colleagues who know well that barangays Mapolopolo, Navatad, Bayoyong, Dumpay and Malimpuec are affected with dengue cases.

About P600,000 out of the allocated P1.4 million calamity fund will be used to buy medicines and vitamins for the people, especially those in the so-called frontline barangays that include the five most affected, as well as those in the collateral barangays composed of about 13 other villages.

But Dr. Ana Teresa de Guzman, acting provincial health officer, told The STAR in a separate interview, that based on their official record, only 19 confirmed dengue cases with one death were officially recorded as dengue cases in this town from January to Sept. 29.

It was even higher last year with 35 confirmed cases and two deaths yet no such declaration for a state of calamity was made, she said.

De Guzman said that a doctor should not hastily say a patient is suffering from dengue fever unless laboratory test results confirm such thing.

“For instance, we just cannot conclude that a patient in a certain town or city died of dengue unless we see copy of his or her death certificate,” she said.

De Guzman added that provincewide, from January to Sept. 29 this year, there were 520 confirmed dengue cases with 10 deaths. But last year covering the same period, she said there were 1,918 dengue cases with 23 deaths yet no declaration of a state of calamity was ever made.