‘No indications of outbreak in city’
Dengue fever has already claimed nine lives out of the 290 cases in Iloilo City but it is unlikely that a state of calamity will be declared in the city.
Based on City Health Office records, from January to July 31, almost 50 percent of the city’s 180 barangays have dengue cases.
But the Department of Health-Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, through its disease reporting hospitals, recorded 448 patients in the city from January to August 7, about 34 percent lower compared to the 659 cases for the same period last year.
The DOH-RESU reported a clustering of cases in three barangays Barrio Obrero, Lapuz with 22; Sinikway, Lapaz, nine; and Boulevard, Molo, eight.
Casualty was also lesser this year, at nine, compared to 21 deaths recorded from January to August 2009.
The DOH-RESU report stated that “there were no indications of outbreak in any of the barangays in the city.”
Last week, Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog announced that he might ask the Sangguniang Panlungsod to place the city under a state of calamity if dengue cases continue to rise.
Dr. Mae Delmo, CHO dengue coordinator, said that based on their data only about .06 to .07 percent of the city’s population have been affected by dengue and the declaration of calamity requires that 50 percent of the population are affected.
She added the declaration of the DOH on whether the cases have already reached an epidemic stage will also be taken into account.
Still, Delmo said the CHO is now intensifying information dissemination efforts with the support of barangay officials and other concerned sectors.*
