Cagayan Valley dengue deaths reach 21

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – A six-year-old kindergarten pupil from Ramon town in Isabela was the latest to succumb to dengue in Cagayan Valley, bringing to 21 the number of fatalities of the mosquito-borne disease in the region since January this year.

This year’s fatalities, a threefold increase from the same period last year, included three minors from Echague town in Isabela, which has accounted for the biggest number of dengue cases in the region.

Marianne Lyn de Laza, head of the Department of Health’s regional epidemiology unit, attributed most of the dengue deaths to “late (medical) consultation” by the victims’ parents.

According to the unit’s records, there has been a 164 percent increase in dengue cases – to 2,718 cases from last January from 1,015 cases during the same period last year. Half of the victims are children aged 13 and below.

Latest DOH reports show Isabela has had 926 cases, with 14 deaths; followed by Batanes with 708 cases and one death; Nueva Vizcaya, 552 and three deaths; Cagayan, 471 and two deaths; and Quirino, 232 and one death.

Batanes was earlier placed under a state of calamity due to the dreaded disease, which claimed the life of a nine-month-old girl from Basco town, the first dengue fatality in the tiny island province.

A person infected with dengue, a viral disease caused by bites from disease-carrying Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes, usually suffers constant high fever, headaches, nausea, vomiting, hemorrhage, abdominal pain, skin rashes, and diarrhea.