CEBU CITY?The province of Cebu continues to grapple with an influx of dengue fever patients to its hospitals, prompting authorities to work double time to stop the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

In three government hospitals in Cebu, 151 dengue fever patients were admitted last Friday alone.

Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) has 108 dengue patients, 98 of them children.

On Thursday, the same hospital had 39 admissions of dengue patients, mostly children.

VSMMC has a pediatrics ward with only 40 beds, but Nonoy Mongaya, hospital information officer, said excess patients were accommodated in the emergency room.

At Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC), at least 35 dengue patients have been admitted, said Dr. Lee James Maratas.

At Mandaue City Hospital, eight patients, including three children, are confined with dengue.

Durinda Macasocol, assistant epidemiologist of Cebu, said 4-year-old Arnel Coronel, of Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, was the latest casualty in the dengue outbreak.

The boy died on August 29, four days after he was admitted at Cebu Doctors? University Hospital in Cebu City.

Macasocol said private hospitals in Cebu City reported a 29-percent increase in the number of dengue patients from January to August.

The total number of dengue cases in Cebu City alone reached 1,175 with 11 deaths.

The situation wasn?t any better in Negros Occidental, where the number of dengue cases continues to rise.

At least 4,087 cases were reported in the province from January to August, a sharp increase from the 770 cases in the same period last year, said Dr. Ernell Tumimbang, acting provincial health officer.

There seems to be a decline in the number of cases in the last few days, however, according to Tumimbang, but four more patients, all children, have died.