OZAMIZ CITY — Local health officials declared a dengue outbreak over 10 villages in this city after 483 people were reported to be infected by the mosquito-borne disease from January to June, leading to 10 deaths.
The Ozamiz City health office said the villages of Tinago, Maningcol, Aguada, Bañadero, Malubang, Triunfo, Catadman, Carmen Annex, Carangan and Molicay recorded the highest number of dengue patients.
Dr. Holly Tago, Ozamiz health officer, said latest disease surveillance reports showed an “unusual surge” of dengue cases in the 10 villages.
“Data analysis suggests that if such trend will continue, we will be facing a much widespread health problem,” Tago said.
“Our data showed that figures within the [first] six months of 2018 already surpass [figures for] 2017. For the entire 2017, we had 200 cases,” she said.
The highest number of dengue cases was recorded in Ozamiz four years ago, at 521.
“We fear that if we won’t act swiftly … we [will] see over 1,000 cases in six months. The more number of cases, the higher the probability of deaths,” Tago said.
DOH help
She thanked the northern Mindanao regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) in Cagayan de Oro City for providing the city dengue testing kits, fogging machines, nets and water-soluble chemicals to kill larvae of the dengue-carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Dr. Bunny Lou Marie Binaoro, chair of the pediatrics department at Mayor Hilarion A. Ramiro Sr. Medical Center (MHARSMC), stressed the importance of early detection of the disease.
“We really need to impose on our parents the need for early consultation whenever their children develop fever … With early detection, we catch [the disease] at an early stage so our patient won’t go into shock,” she said.
MHARSMC, in May, admitted 135 patients that tested positive for dengue fever. — ERWIN MASCARIÑAS