Dengue spike in Bohol, Samar alarms DOH

MEDICAL CARE A child who contracted dengue fever recuperates at a hospital in Ozamiz City. ERWIN MASCARIÑAS

TAGBILARAN CITY — The rising number of dengue fever patients in the provinces of Bohol and Northern Samar has alarmed health officials, as cases have surpassed figures recorded last year.

Records from the Department of Health (DOH)-Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit in Central Visayas showed that dengue cases in Bohol reached 2,057 with 37 deaths from Jan. 1 to Nov. 8.

The figures were 125.55 percent higher than the 912 cases and five deaths reported over the same period last year.

The provincial health office (PHO) in Northern Samar recorded 1,073 cases with six deaths from January to Nov. 13 this year.

Highest

Jessica Tepace, PHO dengue coordinator, said the latest number was the highest recorded in Northern Samar in the past three years.

In 2017, only 529 dengue fever cases, with a single death, were reported.

Dengue is a type of disease caused by bite from the virus-carrying Aedes aegypti  mosquito.

In Bohol, most of the dengue patients came from the capital city of Tagbilaran (278 cases and seven deaths); Dauis town (198 and nine deaths); Loon (125 and five deaths); Trinidad (199); Cortes (90); Talibon (84 and two deaths); Clarin (67 and two deaths); Carmen (66 and one death); Ubay (65 cases and one death); and President Carlos P. Garcia (64).

The patients were between 1 and 88 years old, most of them male.

Boy’s death

Among the fatalities was 10-year-old Jan Ian Gabi, who died of complications from severe dengue on Nov. 6.

Laylyn Gabi said her son had a fever on Nov. 2, prompting her to take him to the hospital the following day.

But she was forced to bring the boy home since the hospital was full.

The boy was taken to the city health office on Nov. 5 for a health checkup but the family was advised to rush him to the hospital since his condition was already critical.

His parents later found out that his platelet count had dropped significantly. The boy died the next day.

Health emergency

In Northern Samar, Tepace said municipal officials of Mondragon had placed the entire town under a state of health emergency in October after almost all of its 24 barangay had recorded dengue cases.

The six fatalities in the province were between 4 and 9 years old and were from the towns of Mondragon, Catarman, Biri, Gamay and San Isidro.

Tepace said the increase in the number of dengue cases in the province was due to stagnant waters caused by rains.

“That is why we are encouraging the public to clean their surroundings, particularly those areas where there are stagnant waters which mostly serve as the breeding ground of dengue-causing mosquitoes,” she said.