Apart from COVID-19, dengue cases also rising
CEBU, Philippines — While the Province of Cebu has been busy battling the coronavirus disease, the Integrated Provincial Health Office also noted a steady increase in dengue cases.
According to data from the IPHO, the number of dengue cases in the province now stands at 2,494 with 12 deaths. This data is from January 1 to June 11.
With the Province's population of 3.2 million, this puts the morbidity ratio to 773 cases per 1 million. The data, however, is lower compared to the 3,333 cases from January to the second week of July last year but the fatality rate is higher compared to only 9 last year.
Dr. Christina Giango, Provincial Health Officer, said that although this year's data is observably lower than last year, they have seen the need to begin putting focus on other diseases like dengue apart from just COVID-19.
"Pagka-karon tagaan nato ug panahon sad ug pagtagad ang uban nga sakit dili lang kay COVID," she said.
She added that there are no requests yet from Rural Health Units (RHU) for misting activities against dengue. But, according to her, this might also be because all attention has been zoomed to COVID-19.
"Pagka-karon, wala pay nagrequest. Siguro tungod sa (ka) busy sa COVID-19 nga trabaho mao nang atong uban… nakalimtan," she said.
For now, Giango advises residents to keep surroundings clean and to dispose of clean stagnant water.
"Prevention sa dengue is pariha gihapon sauna nga manglimpyo gihapon ta," she said.
"For pila ka years mura’g wa na man ni nagseasonal ang dengue. All-year-round na man ni ang dengue," she added.
Dengue cases tend to increase during the second half of each year as the country transitions to the rainy season. FPL (FREEMAN)
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