Leyte town placed under calamity state due to dengue

TACLOBAN CITY –– A sleepy town in Leyte has been placed under a state of calamity due to the increase of dengue cases in the town.

Dr. Rowena de Veyra, municipal health officer of Santa Fe, said 15 of the town’s 20 villages had cases of dengue that affected 120 persons.

Around 90 percent of the patients were children. “But the (good news) is, we don’t have any fatality,” said De Veyra.

To access funds to buy misting machine to contain the spread of dengue-causing mosquito, her office recommended to Sta. Fe Mayor Amparo Montesa to place the entire town under a state of calamity.

Montesa, in turn, asked the town council to pass a resolution, declaring a state of calamity.

“We have to act on this issue right away because we want to protect our people, particularly our children,” Vice Mayor Ismael Lantajo said in a separate interview.

The misting machine would be used to destroy the breeding grounds of dengue-causing mosquitoes.

De Veyra said the number of dengue cases in the town was the highest in years.

She, however, could not say what year the town had experienced a high number of dengue cases.

The regional office of the Department of Health (DOH) has asked all governments across Eastern Visayas to conduct a massive cleanup drive to destroy the breeding places of the dengue fever-causing mosquitoes.

John Paul Roca, DOH-Eastern Visayas information officer, said that since the start of the year until this week, 4,550 individuals had been afflicted with dengue in the region composed of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Samar, Northern Samar, and Eastern Samar.

At least 19 persons were confirmed to have died due to the disease in the region.

Roca said the 4,550 dengue fever cases of the region was 86 percent higher than last year’s 3,913 cases.

The DOH in the region, however, has no intention to declare a dengue fever outbreak because the local governments could still stop the spread of the disease./lb