Dengue cases up, CdeO CHD warns

TheMonitorMindanaoToday.com | Dengue cases up, CdeO CHD warns

By:Uriel Quilinguing

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Prompted by 60 cases of dengue fever last week that tote up to 489 viral infections the past 30 weeks this year, the City Health Department (CHD) has revived vector-control methods against Aedes mosquitoes.

Medical Officer II Rachel Daba Dilla, who heads the CHD, said that although the number of cases every week – that subsequently forms the epidemiological curve – is still below the (epidemic) threshold, they should not be complacent.

“We only have one (1) death [by dengue],” Dilla disclosed in a “Meet the Press” forum at SM Downtown Premier mall on July 23, this year, even as she appealed to parents to immediately seek medical assistance once a child has recurring fever.

Most of the 60 dengue patients last week, she said, were 14 years old and below and 30 of them were four years old and below, thus some my have been bitten [pricked by the insect’s proboscis] by a mosquito either in school or at home.

Dilla said that upon the insistence of Mayor Rolando “Klarex” Uy, they have already done fogging specific areas where clustering of cases have been observed, among these were in Carmen, Camaman-an, and Lumbia villages.

Through the city’s 59 Rural Health Units (Barangy Health Centers), health personnel with the support of barangay officials, have been reminding village residents to keep their households free from possible breeding sites of mosquitos.

The CHD has revived the 5S campaign: Search and destroy, Self-protection, Seek medical advice, Support vector-control activities, and Sustain hydration of dengue patients.

One of the vector-control measures was the distribution of insecticide-treated nets to several public schools, mostly classrooms occupied by kindergarten during nationwide school cleanup (Brigada Eskwela) before the opening of classes.

The CHD head also debunked the myth that one, who had already been infected by dengue virus in the past, is already immune, clarifying that there are four types of dengue virus and that all four have been detected in this city. One may be infected again, perhaps by three other types of dengue virus.

Dilla said that aside from dengue virus, the vector of which are Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, they are also conducting border surveillance for cases of lymphatic filariasis disease—the swelling of parts of the human body where parasitic worms called filariae had been deposited by a Culex mosquito.

“Cagayan de Oro has already been declared filaria-free [in 2014], but we have to make sure that type of mosquito does not enter our city again,” the city health officer said. The disease is also known as Elephantiasis. [Uriel Quilinguing/MT]

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