CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Health Department has warned that a dengue outbreak is in the offing and appealed to all barangays to help avert another possible health crisis in the city.
CHD noted a sharp increase in the number of dengue cases in the last two weeks after health personnel include in their monitoring the non-admitted patients down in the barangay level.
Dr. Jeffrey Ibones, CHD officer-in-charge, said they have recorded 221 additional dengue cases since June 10 bringing the total cases to 1,254 since January of this year.
“Nisaka ni siya kay we are going down to the community, not only those admitted per DOH instruction...apil ang wa na admit,” said Ibones.
City health officials admitted that the number of cases is now nearing the outbreak level. So far, 16 deaths have been recorded in Cebu City. CHD clarified that the earlier report of 17 deaths was inaccurate since the other one fatality was found to be a resident of another local government unit.
CHD’s chief epidemiologist Dr. Ilya Tac-an said that the early rise of dengue cases this year was caused mainly by typhoon Odette. Most of the cases are clustered and the CHD is also giving more focus to the barangays that are mostly affected by the disease.
“Makaingon ta naay clustering of cases which are big barangays pud. Ang transmission on-going diha nga area, mao na ang atoang mga intervention karon ni-focus ta sa atoang top 20 nga mga barangays although all over na sa Cebu City ang atong intervention pero mao na gi-focus nato ang top 20 as well those barangay nga naay deaths,” Tac-an said.
The barangays with most number of cases include Guadalupe, Lahug, Tisa, Labangon and Pardo.
As the numbers are projected to go higher during the rainy season, the CHD is going for an aggressive testing via the NS1 test or the dengue antigen test for early detection.
The CHD is also asking the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to compel the barangays to cooperate and help in the implementation of other interventions against the disease.
“Nakig-coordinate ta sa atoang mga barangays ilabi na sa atoang dengue mitigation and kaning anti-dengue campaign nato, like for example ang 4s nato, search and destroy kanang 3 to 5pm nato nga pagpanglimpyo, ang uban ana niya naa tay gitawag nato og pulong-pulong, naa sad tay katong curtain impregnation, misting importante sad kaayo,” said Ibones.
Ibones emphasized that keeping the surroundings clean through search and destroy is the best way to deal with dengue.
“Ato gyud ni i-emphasize ang misting is dili gyud maoy atong prime nga buhaton kundi ang search and destroy gyud kay kung ang atong kaigsuonan maglimpyo lang gyud motan-aw lang gyud sa stagnant nga water ilabi na sa ilang balay I think magtinabangay ang barangay mous-os gyud atong kaso,” Ibones stressed. — Decemay Padilla, FPL (FREEMAN)